More Beautiful

There was this weather forecast that said Monday was going to be gorgeous.

I had a friend call the night before and ask me what we were doing Monday.

I had an "uhhh" moment.

She told me her idea and when I came to my senses, we planned our Monday.

I'm so glad friends can be there when you have "uh" and "duh" moments.

So Monday morning we packed lunches, threw the kids in the van and

headed for Happy Hollow Park in West Lafayette.

(That sounded a little violent, the kids put themselves in the van.)

If you were stuck inside Monday, or had bad weather where you are at,

let me tell you that here it was as beautiful a day as it could get.

God provided the perfect picnic-hooky weather day.

The nicely paved trail.

All the youngin's.

We played, picnicked, walked and had lots of fun.

Beautiful

My attempt at getting a photo of the partial eclipse this past week.

If you squint you might be able to see the top right missing.

We found this guy hanging on our fence.

Just before taking flight.

Pepper drinking something yummy from Dwayne's hand.

We had such beautiful weather Sunday and Monday.

It was probably some of the last few good days before winter.

Something must have smelled super good.

Pepper is so stinkin' cute.

We more or less just hung around on the farm enjoying the sunshine.

We wondered to the pumpkin patch.

Nolan was helping Grandpa Schultz.

He was thrilled to no end when he was given permission to drive the four-wheeler.

However, he missed it when grandpa told him where to park it.

Grandpa had to walk to the barn lot from the middle field.

;)

We put Pepper on the back after it was parked.

She lasted 1.5 seconds before jumping off.

This is about the only way I can get a picture of Nolan.

Unfortunately, I have an alien arm.

Walking the dog, shadow style.

We weren't the only ones "enjoying" the beautiful day.

These guys were hard at work in the bean field behind the house.

Unfortunately the wind died down and it became so dusty

you almost couldn't see the harvesters.

We stayed inside the rest of the evening.

By morning, the field was empty.

Anniversary Picture

Our twentieth anniversary picture.

We recently discovered that Connor can eat pre-made graham cracker crusts.

I decided to make a peanut butter sunbutter pie for us.

It's super yummy.

One Score

I've thought about this post frequently.

We're not ones to toot our own horn.

We like to stay behind the scenes.

We like quiet.

But, it's our 20th anniversary and
that should be celebrated.

When we were dating Dwayne gave me this:

"Things to Share with Angela"

sunrise

sunset

moon

lazy days

M & M's

Ben & Jerry's

cheese sticks

hugs

kisses

long walks

hopes

dreams

life

me

Jesus

~

 In some ways it seems like we've known each other forever.

And yet, time has passed by quickly.

We've been through a lot in our 20 years.

Almost all of it good.

God has blessed us in so many ways.

We've had our share of not-so-fun times as well.

We've had ten vehicles.

We've moved four times.

We lived with Dwayne's parents for three years.

We're living in the only house we've ever owned.

And it's paid for.
We've never had an argument.
(We do disagree occasionally.)

We've had five dogs, two we had to bury.

We've been blessed with two boys.

We lost a baby.

We lost jobs.

We were baptized together.

Dwayne baptized both boys.

We've been through minor surgeries.

We've been through brain surgery.

We've been to Tennessee more times than I can count.

Things We Share Now

long walks

chocolate

baseball

Bible

hugs

kisses
laughter

pizza

Nolan

Connor

camping

dog

porch swing

life

each other

Jesus

Noodles and Pepper

Sickness has settled in at our house.

Some people open a can of chicken noodle soup to help them feel better.

I would, but Connor's allergic to every kind of canned noodle soup.

Last year I finally learned how to make noodles.

I also found a good homemade chicken noodle soup recipe.

I need to get a noodle drying rack.

I usually nest a bunch of mixing bowls and hang the noodles around the edges.

(Kind of like in the first picture.)

This also dirties every bowl in house.

I finally got smart and used my clothes drying rack.

I'm not sure why I didn't think of that before.

By the way, homemade noodles don't have to be dried if you are using them right away.

They only need to be dried if you are storing them.

On a completely unrelated note,

Pepper drug her blanket to the front yard.

She's never drug it this far.

Clearly she's not feeling bad like the rest of us.

Happy now that the blanket is back by the doghouse.

She continues to whine at bedtime for her blanket.

She gets excited when you go out to put the blanket in the doghouse at night.

Goofy dog.

Cobs

We went for one of our on-the-farm strolls.

Lately we've been going "out west".

This is a couple of pastures with a large sand hill and woods towards the west end.

It also has a few of my father-in-law's corn bins.

My father-in-law had his elevator set up.

I couldn't resist taking some pictures.

Ready to be filled with this year's crop.

Last year's crop was shelled last week leaving a big pile of cobs.

When the weather is right, this pile will get burned.

It makes quite the bonfire!

In the mean time it's perfect for boys and a puppy to play on.

The boys were trying to coax Pepper to the top.

Eventually she decided to try it.

Kings (and queen) of the hill.

Do you know how hard it is to walk holding someone's hand and

take a picture at the same time?

It's not too fuzzy.

Perfect reflection in the stillness of the water.

Perfect for picture flipping too!

Black and Blue

These cloud pictures were taken in early September.

I was fascinated by the color of the sky.

I had never seen it this shade of blue/periwinkle/lavender.

Whatever color you want to call it, it was beautiful.

It was one of these storms that took out our internet

for four days right before we left for Tennessee.

The sky was just stunning.

The pink clouds in the foreground made for an amazing contrast.

I'm still making a feeble effort on the quilt.

I'm nowhere near my goal of finishing before Thanksgiving.

Maybe I'll try to finish by spring...

This is Pepper's blanket.

She's had it since we brought her home.

She likes to drag it around the yard to play with it and lay on it.

She also likes to sleep with it.

She will sit on the back porch and whine because she wants

to go to bed and doesn't have her blanket.

Did I mention she likes to sleep with her blanket?

She has yet to drag the thing back into the doghouse.

I guess that's what the kids are for. :)

Yes, this cute little black dog likes her blankie.

She has now received the "goofy dog" label.

Goofy dog.