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!

Pigeon Forge With Connection Group

A week ago today, our connection Group from church went up to Pigeon Forge for a few days. Our group is just awesome, and it was so much fun! We stayed two nights and three days, but we've all decided that wasn't enough. By the time you travel up there for almost a full day, and have to check out by 11:00 the day you leave--it only leaves one full day for doing all the fun things in Pigeon Forge. On the way up, we stopped at Fat Buddies for Barbeque. YUM!
Below, are Rodney & Susie Webb, me, and Pat & Richard Tooke. Larry & Katherine Stine went seperately and met us there.

Thursday evening, we ate dinner at the Applewood Farm Restaurant. It was delicious, too. It looks already like all we did was eat, but we DID do a few other things. Ha!

Friday, we sat around the cabin and did a lot of talking, had our lesson for the week, shopped, and......ate again! This time it was at the Old Mill Restaurant. In this photo, we are leaving with very full tummies!

The Old Mill is a beautiful setting in the middle of Pigeon Forge. God blessed us with gorgeous weather all day on Friday--even though we had rain going up, and on the trip home. We travelled home on Saturday, since all of us have responsibilities at church on Sundays. Two of the couples in the group weren't able to go, so we will have to plan another trip soon.

A Surprise Benefit

This is how Atlanta looked just about 10 days ago! We were so blessed that we didn't have any flooding personally, but so many did. The above picture shows flooding that occured just 6-7 miles from our house. The picture below is flooding on the expressway.

Even Six Flags was under water!

My heart really goes out to people whose houses were flooded like these. Many are still out of their homes and struggling with major repairs.

Due to the flooding, Evan and Pressley didn't get to go to school, but their Mommy had to go to work at Georgia State. So, we were able to benefit. They love working on the computer, doing crafts, and just hanging out( getting GranNan and Popppy's undivided attention!). And, of course, we love it, too.

Here's our craft of the day!

Pressley also enjoys doing the "Hidden Pictures" in the Highlight magazine we ordered for them.

More Catching Up

On September 21st, Ralph and I got to spend the day with Pressley. Amy had to work, and Pressley had "g'nastics", as she calls it. So, GranNan and Poppy got to have the gymnastics experience! Above, she is showing off her cute leotard and showing how very excited she is to be at "g'nastics"! Below, is a picture Poppy took through the window, since we were not allowed inside.

After lunch at Chick-fil-A, we decided to go visit Granny at Kings Bridge. Below, Pressley is "reading" Granny's Bible. Notice she is still wearing her leotard. The "new" has still not worn off the thrill of her gymnastics' attire, so she wants to wear it everywhere!

Pressley LOVES her Granny, and looks at her adoringly as Granny shows her some family pictures.

And they pose together.....

I just think this is the SWEETEST! These are the hands of the oldest and the youngest members of our family. Granny thinks her hands look so awful, but I think this is beautiful! Her hands represent many years of such love to all of us.

After Evan got home from school, we got to spend some time with him, too. He absolutely loves for his Poppy to read to him! And, of course, Poppy loves it, too! These are days to treasure.

Catch-up from Early September

I have really been a "slacker" when it comes to my blog! I thought when Ralph retired, things would slow down. Was I ever WRONG! We've had a lot of fun, but haven't stopped long at the time. I have some pretty good photos of all we've been up to and thought I'd share them--even if they are a few weeks old. I didn't want to just breeze past these events, so this blog and the next two will be "catch-ups".

Amy is working part-time now at Georgia State. She is counseling law students with career plans and helping them formulate their resumes. Most days she has her child care covered, but every once in a while she needs us to help. The above picture and the one below were taken the day Pressley stayed with us. We always love having her. She is full of personality and such a LOVE!

The picture below was taken Labor Day. Beth and David, Will and Abby were with us, but Amy's family had gone to Seagrove Beach with some friends for Labor Day. We missed them, but still had fun. Ralph grilled these steaks with Dale's sauce and hog rub on them. YUM!

Will loves to help keep the fountain full. He takes that job very seriously, but sometimes "accidently" get pretty wet!

Abby loves strawberries-so she really enoyed this dessert! It is a layered stawberry cheese cake.

Will got dibs on the top strawberry that was dipped in chocolate, but his Daddy was threatening to take it from him!

On September 10th, Ralph and I got away for a few days( three nights). Hilton Head Island is one of our favorite places to be, so we went down and stayed at the Crowne Plaza Resort. We enjoyed it so much! It wasn't very crowded, and the weather was beautiful!

We enjoyed eating breakfast at this little cafe at the Palmetto Bay Marina. I had the stuffed french toast, and it was delicious!

We just sat on the beach and relaxed, read, and watched the scenery. We said since we didn't have the grandchildren to photograph, we had to resort to photographing birds, turtles, flowers, etc.

The landscaping was beautiful! There were Adirondack chairs and hammocks everywhere. Maybe that's what Heaven will be like!

Watch for the next "catch-up" blog soon!