SkyWatch Friday

Dusk falling on the Daleville Cemetery. Happy Halloween and Happy Skywatch! For more photos of the sky from all over the world, see SKYLEY

Halloween 2007

Last year we still lived in Georgia and I took the kids to downtown Monroe. The businesses all had people standing outside passing out candy to all the kids. It was alot of fun for the kids seeing everyone they knew!

Ashlyn and Christian were undecided on what to be for Halloween last year so I convinced them to go as a deer (Ashlyn) and hunter (Christian). They got alot of laughs from that and looked pretty cute if I do say so myself! Braden and Dalton went as Marines (which they want to be again this year).

Not sure how we'll spend Halloween this year. One of the football moms told me about a good subdivision that they go to that even have grills set up with hot dogs and beer for the parents (my kind of trick or treating,lol). There is also the last Lord Botetourt High School football game that my older 2 kids want to go to. Bummer the last game is on Halloween night.

Halloween Week

I'm not sure if you celebrate Halloween where you live but Friday is Halloween here in the good ol US of A. Halloween used to be huge when I was a kid. Almost every house had candy to pass out except that one house that everyone had on their block, that you were afraid of anyway. Now days, it's hard to find many people who do pass out candy and also the schools have done away with letting kids wear their costumes to school and the Halloween party has been traded out for the Fall Festival.

I remember as a kid, my friends and I would hit the whole neighborhood, dragging our pillow cases filled with loot behind us by the end of the night. I also remember this awesome haunted house, Scream In The Dark, that was put on every year by an organization called Campus Life and if I remember correctly, it's a Christian based group (correct me if I'm wrong) and they always had the scariest haunted houses. It was so much fun to go through it and get the wits scared out of us. I haven't been through a good haunted house like that since back in high school. Such fun memories!

Thank you JM who honored me with the

Now I have to list 6 things that make me happy:
1)My kids of course, oh and I should put my husband in there too :)
2)A good book
3)Disneyland!
4)My friends
5)Getting a letter from someone I haven't heard from in a long while
6)Crisp, clean sheets on the bed!

And it's my turn to pass this on to 6:

Tuscaloosa Daily Photo

York Daily Photo

Palos Verdes Daily

Van Buren

Cheltenham

San Francisco

Thanks again JM :)

What A Week!

Things have been crazy busy around here since Friday when I last posted. As you know, my company was due to visit on Saturday but with all the rain they asked if they could postpone their visit till Sunday, which was fine. Braden and Dalton were also supposed to have their last football game of the season Saturday morning but that was rained out and rescheduled till last night (which was freezing cold mind you).

Sunday was wonderful, sunny, blue skies, about 70, perfect hiking weather so we went out for a stroll before our company arrived at 4. We walked out the back of our property and jumped on the train tracks and followed them out past Lord Botetourt High School, then found a hiking trail to follow. The picture above is one of my favorites now. It's Braden while on our hike, he looks like a little elf :) Everyone is in bright orange because it is hunting season and we would not like to be mistaken for a deer!

A little bit after our hike, our company arrived and they were all so wonderful. They loved the house and a few of the gentlemen know a bit about old houses and the way they were built so they speculated on a few things and shared with us what they suspected the house was like back in 1860.

They walked around and took alot of pictures of the house, and I took a few pictures of the group, but dumb me took the pictures with a couple of cameras that belonged to my company and forgot to take one with my own camera,lol...I'll email them and get a copy sent to me. They were also very kind to bring me a picture of Colonel Sperry which I'll share with you when I get my group photo of our new friends.

Busy rest of the week: Tonight is a school carnival that Ashlyn was in charge of planning for one of the local elementary schools. Tomorrow night Braden and Dalton have a birthday party to go to. Thursday night, we have Braden and Dalton's football party to go to and of course Friday night is Halloween. Phew, I'm tired just thinking about it! Take care :)

Oh, a little FYI. Do you know about Taco Bell's "Steal A Base, Steal A Taco" promo? Today, Tuesday, Taco Bell is giving out free tacos, one per customer from 2-6. Enjoy!

SkyWatch Friday

I won't be able to visit much the next couple of days. If you remember, or not, on Saturday we are having some people over that I am excited to meet! The man who built our house was Colonel Sperry and there is a Sperry reunion this weekend and Col Sperry's descendents are going to come and walk through the house he built. It should be fun but I've got much to do to get ready for their visit!

Did I tell you about this strange twist of fate? You may know that I love genealogy and have a genealogy blog that you can access from here. Well, looking through our tree, I noticed my husband has a Mary Sperry that was from this same area. I contacted my new found Sperry friends and asked them and this Mary Sperry is related to Jacob Sperry who built our house, weird isn't it? I *think* her parents were Jacob's GG Grandparents, or something like that, I'll write it down when they come over. Although Nick is only related through marriage, Mary Sperry married into Nick's Dugan line, still it's weird and pretty cool huh?!

Back on track, for more skywatch photos from all over the world, see SKYLEY

Happy SkyWatch :)

The Train, The Train!

The train rolling along Tinker Creek. One of these days I'm going to remember to take the kids out to the track and place coins. I remember doing that as a kid when my Great Uncle's train went through, he was an engineer.



And thanks Marley for the BFF Award, how sweet of you! Thank you again :)

Now it is my turn to give the award to other deserving bloggers following these rules:
1. Only five people are allowed.
2. Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog.
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

After much consideration the awards go to:




Jim Terrel, TX

Rambling Round, Selma, Al

Hope, Knoxville, TN

WebRadio,Pays de la Mée France

David, Tamarindo, Costa Rica

I know that not everyone likes passing awards on, and that's fine. Take some time to visit these worthy winners, especially if you've not been there before.

Ring Of Fire

One day last week we were doing some yard work, raking leaves in piles for Nick to burn when Christian (my oldest boy) noticed this pile burning in a perfect circle, a "Ring of Fire". Christian came in to get the camera and shot this photo :)

Martinsville Continued

Dalton on the left and Braden on the right


All of us inside one of the vendor exhibits


Michael Waltrip (55 Napa)


Dale Earnhardt Sr and Jr look alikes walking around the track. Not sure how I feel about this. (For those that don't know, Dale Sr was killed in a race back in 2001)


And the winner is: Jimmie Johnson in first followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in second.

Race Day

A peek at the vendors


The infield, which is small! We used to camp in the infield at the Atlanta Speedway. This track is small, I think it's a half mile and Atlanta's is a mile or a mile and a half? Something like that anyway.


Getting ready to go!


We were up by 6:00 a.m. yesterday and out the door by 7 to avoid traffic. There are alot of houses right up close to the track that will let you park in their yards for $20 and up! We parked in one of the yards with some people my husband works with. We had a few hours to wait so we cooked breakfast then went in and saw the vendors. Came back to our vehicles and grilled some hamburgers then went in to watch the race. The weather was freezing first thing in the morning but warmed up to the mid 60's with not a cloud in the sky and turned out to be perfect weather for watching the race.

I'll post a few more pictures tomorrow :)

Nascar Sunday

Today we are at the races in Martinsville so I'll be back with lots of pics!

Braden is a huge Jeff Gordon fan and Dalton loves Dale Jr. The picture above was taken this past March at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Ashlyn is getting Tony Stewart to sign her jersey!

Latino Fest

Last Sunday, besides President Clinton's visit, there was a big Latino Festival downtown. We, being San Diego natives, love our Mexican food so went in search for some good vittles. We had some taquitos, different than what we are used to but still really tasty, and some tacos al pastor, delicious!

One thing about Mexican food, it's different across the United States. What is served in So Cal is "taco stand" food, carne asada burritos and rolled tacos=THE BEST FOOD EVER! You can't find that kind of Mexican food outside of Southern California. When we first left Ca back in 2001, we missed it so badly that we had my mom Fed Ex us some burritos and rolled tacos out to Missouri,lol. Funny, not long after moving to Springfield, Mo a Mexican stand opened up that served our type of Mexican food. We were in Heaven, and funny enough after we left Missouri, this place closed down. Were we the ones keeping them in business?

Anyways, we had a fun time at the festival and I did feel a bit like my friend
Olivier over in Evry taking photos of the festival!

The Roanoke "Paparazzi" was there too and I had to lol when I saw them after my "Paparazzi and the acting dogs" post. The paparazzi asked if they could take our picture so we kindly obliged ;) Let's see how well you know me and my family, can you pick us out in a line up? (Hint: my husband and Ashlyn are photographed separate since they wandered off to pay for our parking when we were getting harrassed by the paparazzi,lol Click Here then click on "Paparazzi: Latino Festival" and see if you can find us. Besides my family, there are lots of interesting characters that were photographed!

SkyWatch Friday

Just past dusk, the moon rising over our house. For more looks at the sky from all over the world, check out
SKYLEY

He's Home!

Bucky made it up here last week. Do these two look happy to be together or what?!

Wachovia Bank

The Wachovia Building in Roanoke. Wonder if the name will change since the Wells Fargo merger?

Slick Willy Comes To Town

Sunday we went to downtown Roanoke for the Latino Festival. While there we heard that President Clinton was coming to town. We decided to walk over and see what was going on.

They had the street blocked off from traffic and a long line of people waiting for the next 2 hours for Clinton's arrival. The kids enjoyed trying to pick out the Secret Service.

Here we noticed a vehicle getting the once over by this K-9. Luckily the vehicle was reported clean by the K-9 and he got a big hug from his police owner. It's cute to see how they really are just normal dogs, pleased with praise!



When we lived in Springfield, Missouri, President Bush came to town. We took the kids and it really was an awesome experience. No matter which side of the Presidential debate you are on, it is pretty cool to see them!

Sunoco Station

"The official fuel of Nascar", will this help me to drive like Dale Jr? Speaking of fuel, gas prices have been dropping dramatically here. We are now down to $2.96! (Did I just say "down to"? Sad that we think $2.96 is great but I'll gladly take it)

And speaking of driving, since moving here we've noticed Virginia drivers are terrible tailgaters. No, not the fun kind of tailgaters with beer and bbq's but the dangerous kind that drive almost attached to your bumper.

Virginians, repeat after me: I (insert name here) do solemnly swear to never tailgate again and promise that I will always keep a safe distance from the front of my vehicle, to the rear of the vehicle in front of me, so help me God!

Other than tailgating, we love it here and the people are very friendly!

Oh, and Happy Columbus Day across the states!

Love Is Like a Poisonous Mushroom

You don't know if it is the real thing until it is too late.

Source unknown

Found this little guy growing while on our hike on the Appalachian Trail last week.

Peace and Serenity

Isn't this old house beautiful? I can just picture myself lounging on the porch on a hot summer's day with a tall, cold glass of lemonade, watching the kids run and play.

I love old houses. They sure don't build them like this anymore! (Look at that neat little window at the top of the house)

It's a busy weekend here in the Breese household. Football this morning and Nick is actually home the whole weekend so I'll be scarce! Hope you all have a fun and exciting weekend but don't forget to take a few moments and find some peace and serenity in your day!

SkyWatch Friday

A clear blue sky reflecting on Tinker Creek. For SkyWatch Friday photos from all over the world, see
SKYLEY

Surf's Up

This little tree stump reminds me of Cody Maverick, with the spiky hair-do from Surf's Up, doesn't it? Maybe just a little? Should I sneak back over with some black and white spray paint? ;)

I have a sick little boy home from school today. Braden isn't feeling well. I had already decided to use this picture for the day and was going to go watch a movie with Braden. I asked him what he wanted to watch and his first choice was Surf's Up. He had no idea I was even thinking about it at the moment. We must be on the same wave length!

Rambo?

Coming across this sign, we feared the worst. Upon closer inspection, we noticed the 3 "Rambo" dogs and they looked very much like Beethoven, Shiloh and Bud from Air Bud. Christian and I decided that this must be where retired acting dogs come and the sign is a deterrent to keep the paparazzi at bay.

Appalachian Trail - Part 2

With the temps hovering near 80 on Sunday, it was a blessing that most of the hike was through the green, lush trees.

We were able to see our little run in barn from the top of the hill. Our house is too shaded by trees to be visible.

We were told that once we got to the top, there is another trail that runs along the ridge, but that's a whole days hike. We'll have to try that another day, start out earlier!

To see more of our hike CLICK HERE

Appalachian Trail

We are fortunate that we live close to a few of the Appalachian Trail heads. In this picture is Tinker Hill, taken from our pasture. Yesterday we hiked it. It took a good hour and a half to get up and probably another hour to get down.
The trees were still mostly green going up the hill. We'll have to take the hike again next month as the leaves begin to change to reds, yellows and oranges.

It was a beautiful hike and I'll share more pictures from the trail during the week :)

Alot of Heart

Let's hear it for our little 6 year old age division Botetourt Bulldogs (black pants)! Today they played Franklin County and you might be able to notice that Franklin County grows their boys BIG! Our boys put up a fight and scored 2 touch downs and didn't even let Franklin County score once!
Just goes to show you that size really doesn't matter if you play with all your heart!
You might be able to find Braden (22) and Dalton (23) in a couple of shots :)

Zaxby's and Football

Last night we took the boys to
Zaxbys which is one of Christian's favorite places to eat. There's only one here in the Roanoke area (hopefully that will change soon)but they are all over the place in Georgia. Ashlyn opted out and went to a friend's house instead to go to the football game with her.
After our yummy scrummy dinner at Zaxby's, we headed over to Lord Botetourt High School to watch our Cavaliers get whooped by Pulaski County. Oh well, we still had fun!
And of course the boys have football today so we're heading out shortly. Have a great day :)

SkyWatch Friday

A couple of days ago Christian and I were sitting in the car waiting for the school bus when I told him to take a picture of the
Feed The Children truck. I think it's a great cause and thought it would make an interesting picture. Only when I was downloading what he got I noticed how magnificent the sky looked so once again I'm using one of Christian's pictures for SkyWatch Friday. He really enjoyed being a part of SkyWatch :)
For more SkyWatch Friday photos from all over the world, see SKYLEY

6 Years Old and All Grown Up

I was bringing up the rear, behind Braden and Dalton yesterday as they were heading to practice. Somehow I managed to snap a couple of photos while juggling my chair, their water jugs and my purse and camera. They look so grown up to me in this photo, where does the time go? Seems like yesterday when I found out I was having twins, now they are 6 years old and heading to football practice. I wish I knew how to slow time down.
Braden is number 22 and Dalton 23. Funny that Braden would be number 22 since they were born on 2/2/2002 and Braden was born at 2:22. If I was a numerologist I'd know what this means but since I'm not, I just think all those 2's are pretty cool!

October Theme Day-Lines

Today's Theme Day theme is "Lines" and I immediately thought "train tracks" since I love the train!
When we "hear that train a comin'", the boys race down to the tracks to get the engineer to blow his whistle and he's always happy to oblige!
Happy Theme Day!
Try and visit someone new today. I'm going to try to visit everyone from the list!
By the way, did "hear that train a comin" ring a bell? And yes, these are the very same tracks I found that snake at, pretty much the exact same area! Maybe he's hiding in the picture ;)
For more October Theme Days from around the world Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

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