It’s cold here this morning. They say it’s only going to be 68 degrees, but I know it’s colder than that in the house. I turned the air off just to make sure it won’t kick on and I’m on my third cup of coffee just to warm up.

Fall is my favorite time of the year. The leaves will be changing soon and I’m anxious to get on the Parkway and see the colors when they do. But fall also means that winter will be here soon. I’m not real fond of winter, but the anxiety that goes with winter will be lessened this year thanks to the new job. I don’t have to worry about where the kids will go if it snows, and if it does snow, we can just stay put. I don’t have to worry about digging out. I just need to remember to stock up before it hits!

Today is interim report day at school. I’m nervous to see Matthew’s. I know that he’s had some C’s on tests and he’s struggling with spelling. It’s time to get back to writing the words every night. Samara, I feel, will have a good report. She’s gotten a check mark or 5/5 on everything except the test on “All About Corn”. She got a 4/5 and she was very upset about this. I told her it was okay to miss a question every now and then, but she’ s more concerned about people cheating off of her than anything else.

Well, I’m down to the bottom of my cup and I’m still cold and I have a mountain of work to do today and want to get most of it done before the kids get home from school. I better go refill and charge myself up! Tim hooked the cable up in here last night, so at least I’ll have more choices for background noise today. That I am rather excited about!

Until next time…

Heather

The new job is going well. I’m adjusting to being at home full time and I think others are too. It’s quiet during the day and I like that. I can talk to myself, blare the radio, or talk to the dogs if I like. (We’re dog sitting Jack for a few weeks while Tim’s mom is in California.)

I’m loving being back in TV. It’s all coming back to me and the people at the station are great. I have some big challenges ahead of me, but nothing that I can’t handle.

The kids enjoy coming home on the bus after school. We have a routine that seems to be working out nicely. They get home at 2:30 and we have snack together until 3. From 3 to 4 we have homework time (or educational time) and I finish up what I’m working on. Zoom comes on at 5 and we never miss that.

The house is cleaner, and yes, I’m cooking. I’ve only ruined one dinner so far. It was a new recipie in the crockpot. I’ve made muffins for breakfast and mom’s lasagna and I even made her chocolate cake…from scratch! What a hit!!! So, I’m getting there.

Samara began cheerleading last week. She goes every Thursday for an hour. Somehow I got roped into being a parent helper. There are a lot of kids, and I don’t mind helping. It makes the hour go by faster and I get a 50% discount on her tuition. The pom poms are great!

The kids also begin Destination Imagination in October and are excited about that.

Matthew is running for homeroom rep for the SCA. My child the politician and lost a tooth last week. The tooth fairy didn’t come the first night because the tooth had fallen on the floor. Who knew the tooth fairy was so anal???

That’s about all for now…

Until next time…

Heather

PS. Don’t you love the new home?

For the second holiday weekend, we found ourselves kidless…so we took off for the weekend…not really having any plans. We stayed at the Woodberry Inn Friday and Saturday night and just threw the tent in the car convinced we would find a place to camp Sunday night…

No computer, no business stuff…just relaxation. (And if you know me, you know how much I struggle with this!!!)

All in all it was a GORGEOUS weekend.  Of course there were mishaps, I was travelling…but nothing major that we cuoldn’t work around or just sit back and laugh at it…

Here are some pictures of the weekend…

Tim was fishing with in 30 minutes of arriving…

The lake and the rooms at the Woodberry…

The lake…

Tim’s first fish…he wasn’t sure exactly what it was…

so I took a picture so he could look it up when he got home…

more fishing…

This is where they have Floyd Fest every year…we were nosey, so we drove down to get a closer look…

The stage that they build for Floyd Fest…it’s used one weekend a year…

A close up of the stage…

The view from one of the overlooks on the parkway…

It’s absolutely amazing…

Gorgeous, no?

I couldn’t stop taking pictures…lol

Another view…

This tree had branches that were on the ground, and I found it interesting…

More mountains…

Rocky Knob Visitors Center…this is where we ended up staying Sunday night…

The Parkway…

We drove into Hillsville for their annual Flea Market…we couldn’t believe the sights…they have State Troopers directing traffic…

There’s the CVS where we stopped to get antihistimine when my hands swelled up…and just look at all those people…

A view of the main stretch of town…it was madness…needless to say, we didn’t stay long…

There were people just walking in the street with guns that they had purchased. I tried and tried to get a picture and couldn’t, so when Tim took the camera, this lady walked right out in front of him…

The State Troopers again…

I have no idea what he’s looking at…

Another fish…

This one is pregnant…

Another one…

The blue sky…

I shouldn’t take pictures laying down…but the fish weren’t biting for me…

See? I just sat there…

Another one for Tim…

Another View…

Me…too much sun…but that’s me…

and me again…

Our campsite Sunday night…

I take all the time to blow up the mattress and Tim inspects to make sure it’s okay…

Mabry Mill…

The Blacksmith shop…

Tim looking at the creek…

The snake he found…

Tim moving the snake into the water…

A great weekend despite my hand swelling up, forgetting the basket for the coffee maker, and falling over in my chair spilling soda all over my only pair of pants and long sleeved shirt…but Tim knows me well enough…he always packs an extra sweatshirt for me…and this time was no different…

Until next time..

Heather

My baby turned 6 years old. She donned the family Party Animal hat and we had a nice little party for her!She was in her glory!!!

She took this picture of herself…

I took this one of her…

Matthew…full of birthday joy…

Opening her Cinderella card…it had sparkles…

Her coloring card from Nana…

The Dairy Queen food that is now scattered all over the house…

Her “gymnasitc stick” from Nana…

Opening more…

She’s telling Matt to be quiet…

Opening her Polly Pocket Jewelry maker that Matt got here…the beads are now everywhere too…

Matt showing her all it will do…

She’s showing us how old she is…

Blowing out the candles…

Eating the cake!

Until next time…

Heather

I’m a little late posting most of these pictures…we’ve had SOOOO much going on! We took the kids to the Summer Blast at Greenhill Park and it was HOT! We didn’t stay too terribly long although they would’ve stayed longer had I let them. I just couldn’t stand the HEAT!

Until next time…

Heather