Fall Colors

My sister, Holly, put together a lovely little bouquet of autumn 'flora' from out in the yard. I love the bold scarlets and golds - nature's last 'huzzah' before its long winter sleep...

Doing My Part

I did my duty this week, and went to the local Courthouse to vote...

I decided to go early, because there's something else exciting happening on November 4th - our 20 week ultrasound!

I have to admit, I'm much more excited about seeing my baby on election day than I am about who the next President of the United States is going to be, but it does give me just the tiniest bit of an emotional, patriotic thrill to cast my ballot in an election - even though I am thoroughly disgusted with how this election has played out, with its smearing tactics and biased media.

In the past couple of weeks, it has been hard to recognize this country as the same one I was raised to love and give allegiance to - it's a scary world that is possibly going to get a whole lot scarier... I just hope whoever God allows into the Oval Office in January will allow Americans to retain the freedoms and liberties that make us unique in the world.

Pumpkins

Sometimes - oftentimes - it's the simple things that inspire my eye behind the lens... And I love no subjects more than my family - especially when they're having fun.

It was a lovely, brisk fall evening - the light was perfect, the pumpkins brilliant, and everyone getting a kick out of getting to play with knives...

Sharpening the knives...



Quite a mess...

Drawing the face...


Lighting the candles...


Masterpieces.

October - On the Road...

October seems to have been spent in the passenger seat of our old Honda Civic Wagovan... And in beds that aren't our own. We've done a lot of driving - a lot of traveling...it's been exciting, exhausting and lovely, all at the same time. It's good to be back home, for a while...

Celebrating the Miracle That Is Her Reproductive System...

I recently helped throw my friend, Natalie, a baby shower for her third little miracle... It was a lovely, colorful morning...

Here's my kitchen, as I prepared all kinds of brunch foods...including cupcakes...

The finished products! Decorating cupcakes is so much fun...

We decorated with pansies, mums and colorful boy/girl themed collages, as Natalie doesn't know whether baby number 3 will be a daughter or son!

A lot of the gifts were wrapped in bright, autumn colors...

Baby showers are delightful and exhausting, especially when you're helping pull all the pieces together! They're always well worth the effort, though, and it was great to be a part of gathering Natlie's friends and family around her to help celebrate the miracle of new life.

Autumn in Ohio

It's been quite a while since I've posted here...life has been crazy, time has been short, and internet has been largely unavailable! However, I've found a quiet moment to go to my favorite coffee shop and spend an hour or so catching up. Here's what we did this past weekend...

We always enjoy our visits to Matt's Aunt Mary and Uncle Larry's farm, up in southeastern Ohio... It's a beautiful, quiet area...

Mary has a lovely, colorful garden this autumn...



This was the first time I had met Mary and Larry's horses - they were being abused by flies, but were very sweet and affectionate. They even loved Django, and wanted to kiss him! Django wasn't too cool with that at first, but he warmed up to the horses after a while...


[Do I have to kiss this horse? Gosh!]