It's Fall in Tucker--or is it Winter?

BRRRRRR! It's cold tonight! We just did a little Fall decorating this week, but now, on this Saturday, October 17th, we are wondering if winter is here! Wish we could escape to Florida!---Oh, wait--we ARE going to Florida!!!! That's right! Several weeks ago, we set aside this next week to go somewhere fun, since we're retired. We decided to wait until the last minute so that we might be able to get a good deal. Well, Wednesday, we finally booked a place in Redington Shores. It is between Clearwater and St. Pete. And we did get a good deal--at least, we think we did!

Thursday, Amy called and said the kids kept asking to come over to Poppy & GranNan's house. She said she decided, if she didn't get them over here this week, they would be very unhappy to hear that we were out of town next week. So, we had a pleasant surprise! They came over for several hours--and we all got to go out to dinner together, too! Are they sweet, or what?!!

Fall Weekend--Part #3

OK, where was I? Oh, yes--we visited cousins, Evan and Pressley! After a fun time was had by all four, we decided to get Corin to meet us at "The Casa"( It's actually Uncle Julio's Casa Grande). Amy and Corin and their kids go there almost every Friday night, so we decided to tag along. The chips there are fantastic--as well as most everything they have! Here, they are enjoying the chips--and the waitress also brought each of them a ball of dough to play with!

Before we took Will and Abby home on Saturday, Abby wrote this note to Poppy and GranNan. Of course, it just melted our hearts! (the word "sing" was actually supposed to be "things".)

After we took them home on Saturday, Beth, David and the kids went up to my sister, Lynn's, lake house. We had a lot of responsibilities at church on Sunday morning, so we didn't go up until Sunday afternoon. We were all there together from Sunday until Tuesday. Sunday was the only day we didn't have rain, but we still had a lot of quality time together.

We also got to see more cousins when we arrived at the lake house. Lynn had had Debbie's grandchildren over the weekend, and we were so glad to see them! This is Sydney and Michael. They are my neice, Melissa's, children. As most of you know, we lost my sister, Debbie, to an auto accident in 1991. It breaks my heart to think that she never got to see her three precious grandchilren. Her oldest, Amanda, will be 15 in January! Debbie would have loved and enjoyed each one so much!

Sunday, before the rains began, Will and Abby thoroughly enjoyed fishing! Here Will is showing off his very first fish ever!

Abby caught one too. It was about the same size as Will's--we even wondered if it was the same one, since Will's was thrown back in.

On Monday, the kids played with the Wii--they have really gotten good at Wii Bowling!

Since it was still raining on Monday afternoon, we all decided to go to Anderson, SC, which is about 25minutes from the lake, and take in a movie. We saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". It was cute!

That completes last weekends activities. All good things must come to an end--but we're looking forward to more fun times!

Fall Weekend--Part #2

Hello! Here we are, back at the Botanical Garden again. Will and Abby especially liked this "Hannah Montana" scarecrow! Below, Ralph and the kids are standing behind the waterfall in the Children's Garden.

Here's another cute scarecrow--on a bicycle!

And a band of scarecrows!

Here, Will and Abby are standing in a little gazebo in the Japanese garden.

Below is a group of pumpkins with the Dale Chihully glass piece in the background.

Unlike today, our visit was on a very warm day, and the kids enjoyed cooling off in the neat mister in the gardens.

This is a Moore piece. I love the way you can see the skyline of Atlanta through it!

As we left the gardens, there were lots of scarecrows "telling us goodbye".

Since Evan is in another school district, he was not out of school last Friday. So, we waited until his school day was over to visit with Evan and Pressley. I wanted to get some new pictures of the four of them together, so here is one of the many, many we took!

A Fall Weekend--Part #1

This past weekend, we had another one of those special weekends! Beth and her kids were out of school for their "Fall Break". In order to give Beth and David a little break from the kids, Ralph and I had them with us the first two nights of their break. We tried to think of things to do that they would enjoy.

The first evening, we made a visit to Kings Bridge to see Granny. Granny doesn't get to see Will and Abby as often as she would like--and they love to see her! Then, the next morning, Ralph let them help him scan pictures. He has gotten a new little "toy" that is a real gem. It scans 4x6 pictures like a charm, and puts them on a flash drive, so that they can be put directly into the computer. He has already scanned around 500 old pictures.

Then, we had our craft time. Evan and Pressley had enjoyed this--and so did Will and Abby.

Will really gets into his "traffic"! He had his own little town built in our small den!

Abby is into music, so she enjoyed entertaining us with her "violin"

Next, off we went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. We go there often, but all four grands never seem to tire of it! There is alway something different to explore! Right now, they still have the Moore exhibit, but they have also added the Scarecrows in the Garden.

Everything is so pretty--and fallish!

Here is one of the many scarecrows. I think they had more than ever!

Abby has always loved to pose with Mr. Froggy at the Botanical Gardens. Stay tuned for Part #2 of our fun Fall Weekend! I have so many pictures, I'm having to split this blog into 3 parts!

Service to the Community

Yesterday was such an exciting day at Briarlake! Look at our beautiful brand new baptistry! It is just the coolest thing! It is a waterfall during the week. (The railings are removable and a grate will be placed in the pool to make it only about 12 inches deep.) Then, when it is time to baptize, the grate will be removed, and the railings put back in place. The waterfall/baptistry is a wonderful addition to Briarlake and was built in memory of Carter Martin.

Our Community Service Day was yesterday. But, before we went out to the various sites of service, we were all given T-shirts to wear, we had our very first baptisms in the new outdoor baptistry, had an outdoor Worship Service, and had a delicious lunch in the fellowship hall. Below, I and several others, were distributing T-shirts before the baptisms began.

Ben Richter and his group sang during the baptismal service, as church members participated.

Tommy, our Pastor, baptized six people! What a thrill to see new believers coming to Christ!

There were 500+ at the outdoor Worship Service on the ballfield! And God provided such a gorgeous day!

Here, the team coordinators are holding signs for the work sites available. Ralph and I worked at Sophia Academy, a private Christian school on Dresden Road, for children with learning disabilities.

Ralph did outside work on the playground, and I helped inside with the die-cuts and scarf-making.

It was such a great way to show God's love to our community and let them know Christians care!

Saturday Soccer

Shhhhhhh! It's not official, but this is our prospective Minister of Youth and his wife. To start the weekend off, we had the opportunity Friday evening to meet Scott and Lori. They are from Hickory, NC and, if the vote on October 25th goes as expected, they will join our church staff soon after that. We met them at Tommy and Elyse's and were blessed to hear them share their heart for Student Ministry. We pray that God's Will will be done in this situation, and that if Scott is God's choice for Briarlake, things will go really well for everyone involved!

There have been so many signs of Fall this weekend! Soccer has started again, and we got to watch Will play Saturday.......

His team lost, but they really fought hard! The league is for 7 through 10 year-olds, and all the boys on the other team must have been 10. They were so much taller than the boys on Will's team! Below is one of the few times Will didn't play, but he still seemed to be having fun--in deep conversation--too cute!

Abby was there to cheer her brother on!

After the game, ALL of us (both sets of grandparents included) went to Pa-zings to eat lunch. It was fun for all the grandparents to have some quality time with Will and Abby. Back home, Will is relaxing in front of the TV......

and Abby is reading to GranNan. It is always so thrilling to hear each grandchild, as they begin to read really well! And Abby is a good little reader!

More to come tomorrow on the rest of our busy--yet fantastic weekend!