HAPPY FALL!

THAT was an unplanned blogging break! LOL, I see that I haven't blogged since the end of July. Hmmm, what HAVE we been doing since then?

We took one last family vacation to Washington DC and had a WONDERFUL time!

Yes, Adam got to come along on this trip and the girls loved having their big brother spending time with them again.

After DC, we started a new school year,

Rick and I worked like crazy to get the house ready to put on the market, Rick started a new job, and I tried to adjust to being ALONE during the day. (Don't really care for that!) I have started volunteering at the girls' school, helping with small tasks for their teachers, helping at the health screening day, and helping with the RIF program. I do enjoy being able to do that, and the girls love it too.

Since I last blogged, Kristi turned 30 (!!), Rick turned 52, Ricky turned 28, Adam turned 21 (!!), Ashlie turned 8, and I turned 50 (HOW could that be?!!!) That adds up to a LOT of cake, ha!

The house is still on the market and keeping it "show ready" is taking up way too much of my time. Our listing is up on Dec 2nd and if it hasn't sold, we'll happily stay put. :-) We actually love our home, but we also know that this is a good time to get more space for not a lot more money. If it happens, great, if not, we're just fine here.

Our family had to say goodbye to Great Grandma German this month. She passed away in early October at 92 years of age, and we will miss her so much. 2010 has been a year of great loss for our family and it's hard to accept that Rick's dad, and now Grandma, are no longer with us. We now have Grandma's blue mixing bowl in our kitchen. I think I find a way to use it every single day, and we think of Grandma's kitchen every time I get it out.  Too bad it doesn't automatically turn me into the cook that Grandma was!

Michelle's husband Leo has been deployed to Afghanistan (he is in the Air Force) He left on 9/11. I believe it was 9/18 that Chelle found out that she and Leo are expecting their 3rd baby!! We're so excited for them, but it's awfully hard on Chelle to take care of Bella and Maddie and take care of herself as she fights the fatigue and nausea of early pregnancy. We've figured out a way to get them home for a few weeks over Thanksgiving and are SO looking forward to that!

We're also looking forward to heading to Dallas this coming Friday! We'll be spending a few days with Kristi and Anthony and Avery!

and we're SO excited that all our kids (except Leo of course) and grandkids will be here for Thanksgiving this year!

and that's ALMOST all that we've got going on right now, . . .