Random Roundup

He acquired an Aeronca Chief. And has been trying to get it up and running.

 I picked so many of these ruby red gems.

 We got our first egg! Always exciting!

 Making Banana Muffins for the Lemonade Stand.

 Pretty cute, right?

 And then this happened! Burst pipes meant a flood in our kitchen and holes to patch.

 At least I was prompted to pull out our range. I guess I should do this more often?

 We especially love our blue eggs!

 These boards may not look like much but I have big plans for them. Just wait!

 He lost his first front tooth. Twice as cute and twice as mischievous!

 We went to Jamestown!

 I love the ropes!

 My sweetie reused an old copper pipe to make this little trellis for my climbing rose.

 I love this, dirty feet and all.

We had about a week of all the cousins on my side of the family together, so fun!

 Scored this at a little shop in Eastern Virginia. It will go above the tub in our Master Bathroom, just a smaller version of the one in our Room.

Free sunflowers in a patch in front of a farm. I love that someone wanted to share.

We have zinnias!

Several of these pies have been made and consumed here. All the fresh berries and peaches have made it easy.

School is starting in a little over a week from now, it's the end of a great summer! But I hate change… it will be nice to settle back in to a routine and welcome fall.

Thankful and blessed,

Melissa

Flying over Philadephia

I just had to share this awesome picture that my husband, the Pilot took last night.

It doesn't get much better than that, right?

I am glad to have him home though! The last few days he's been back and forth all over the east coast and I'm so happy that he gets to do what he loves.

I'm heading out to the Pumpkin Patch with my 1st grader for a field trip, should be fun! After being sick for two + weeks, I finally went to the doctor yesterday. I have no idea why I waited so long. I have Asthmatic Bronchitis and am on antibiotics and prednisone so here's hoping I won't be too crazy today on the field trip! 

Have a great weekend you all!

"Orange and Blue"

Oh, and please watch this for me!! It will make you smile, I promise!

Our Saturday

Today was the unofficial first day of Spring Break.

Usually this time of year we go to Florida, but this year we're at home and enjoying discovering fun family activities close to home.

I'm going to try to post every evening. It will be fun to look back one day and see all that we have done.

Today we went to a little airport for lunch. This sweet older couple serve lunch every weekend from their hanger. It's fun to hang out with all the older pilots. (And their dogs. There are a dachsund and a german shepherd that always have a bit of a competition going on!)

The pilot took each of the children up in the "Bluebird" for short rides - they loved it, of course!

(Little Brother's camera smile.)

 (Cute wheel chocks!)

After that, we stopped by Grandma's for a while, and then went home to end the day with a bonfire.

Little smokies, cheese, pretzels and apples.

(And Mr. Ed to tell crazy jokes!)

Why does food always taste better in the open air?

Family, Flying....and Fun!

And I should have added fear, also. I may have said it before, even though my husband loves flying, and is the most amazing pilot, I am not comfortable in the air. So sad, but true.

So, what this is all about, we flew down to Kentucky to a family reunion this past weekend.

It was so great to reconnect with family and even meet some cousins whom I had only known through blogging!

I only wish we could have stayed longer.

Loading the airplane, what a face!!

Big Sister was "copilot" she was so proud of her job.

We flew above the clouds, they were beautiful, so huge and the sun was really bright. When we had to go down under them, the contrast from bright, blue skies to overcast weather was interesting.

So the sky really is always blue, sometimes we just can't see it.  :)

I forgot to switch out camera batteries for the trip, so I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked, but we had an awesome time!

Happy Monday!!

Fence Project

See this? The spiral thing in the back?  It's called an auger. I love it. 

My husband found it on craigslist and brought it home in the back of a friend's airplane.

I love how he thinks "outside the box." It is good for me as an "in the box" thinker.

Life is never boring, I love you, sweetheart!

He loves his "big man" toys and I love what they can do!

So he was ready to try it out and I have lots of ideas.

We have a straight line of fencing along the front that just ends at the mailbox and I have always felt that it looked unfinished.

This thing drilled these holes in about 30 seconds. Amazing!

This picture is from the driveway with the road to the left.

(Mosby kept dropping his ball in the hole hoping someone would throw it for him.)

The fence is finished and we will build and hang a gate soon. The whole fence will hopefully get painted this summer - I would do it now but the treated wood on the new part needs to dry out.

I found some more stones to finish our walkway and The Pilot installed them.

This is how it looks now. 

We are hoping to complete a lot more projects this year. I'll keep posting as we do them.

goodbye 2010

The Pilot took us on a little sunset flight around the city. It felt like a good way to wrap up the end of the year.

  I read a lot of great blog posts from you all - reflections on the year and all, but I don't feel like I have my thoughts together very well.

I know I have much to be thankful for. A better realization of God's grace and his patience with me.

It's been a hard year in many ways, and yet I am closer to understanding what it means to be "more than conquerer through Christ". I used to pray for strength just to survive a rough time, now I'm learning that he wants me to have so much more. 

I'm thankful for my family. You all mean so much to me - I'm so blessed!

I had a lot of fun shopping with my sister and sister-in-laws the other day, we should do it more often!

I have some plans for the new year, more like ways to keep busy till spring. I want to deep clean the whole house, room by room. I also want to spend time working on the decor of my rooms. It would feel good to have my house feel finished. I think we got so burned out renovating our house that we have just never completed some details. 

I'll post pictures to show what I've accomplished, it should be fun!

Wishing you all much happiness in the new year!

the pilot

My husband loves to fly, and has since he was a little boy flying with his dad. On one of our first "dates" he took me flying over my house and around town. Nothing excites him more than talking about aviation.
   He recently started flying right seat in our university's jet. This has been his dream and I'm so proud....