At The Barn

Am I the only one who loves the way a barn smells? The scents from the horses, hay, grain, leather, all mixed together...mmmm :)


Happy New Years Eve! What are your plans for the evening? We are just staying in, probably do some fireworks, I'll make a bunch of munchies and watch all the New Years festivities on tv. 2009 here we come!

What The...???

(As seen in the Daleville Kroger parking lot :) )


So what do you make of this license plate? Does it say what I think it does? One thing we've noticed upon moving here is that Virginian's love their vanity plates and the Old Dominion State doesn't seem that strict about what you can put on your plates. My husband said vanity plates are very inexpensive here so that may be why you see more personalized plates than not. I did the DMV work for years back in my working days in San Diego for a few different dealerships and the great state of California was very selective about what they would allow on your plate and you had to give a brief description of what your plate would mean if they granted their seal of approval. Here, I've seen some pretty controversial plates, or that I, an ex-DMV clerk would consider controversial.

I do have to say, I love her attitude towards the Marine Corps, especially since I spent the first 4 years of my married life as the wife of a Marine :)

While many of the personalized plates just tell how many kids they have or what number their boy is on the high school football team, some are pretty entertaining.
I think I should do a series on Virginia license plates as I see them!

Our Saviour Lutheran Church

Located in the Historic Bonsack District-Roanoke

I tried to get information on the church from their website, like when it was built but they only had information of what their church is about and worship times. I would have liked to know how old it is.

Sorry I haven't been able to visit. I fried my keyboard on Friday when I spilt my coffee on it, dumb! The last thing I wanted to do over the weekend was deal with all the Christmas exchange crowds so I waited till this morning and hit WalMart up first thing, no crowds!

And a movie recommendation: House Bunny...Oh my gosh, this was so silly hilarious, we laughed out loud, literally!

SkyWatch Friday

So was Santa good to you? I'm wiped out! Over shopping, over cooking and over indulging but we had a wonderful Christmas!

We didn't get a white Christmas but instead had beautiful sunny, warm weather. I took this skywatch photo from the top pasture while I was out walking around trying to burn some unwanted calories!

For SkyWatch photos from all over the world, visit SKYLEY

The Stockings Were Hung....

By the chimney with care
In hopes that St. Nicholas
Soon would be there...

*Merry Christmas*

Christmas Lights

Last night Nick got off work a little early so we drove to Bedford to see the National Elk's Home. One of Nick's buddies from work told him that they put up some excellent Christmas lights and he was right, they did a wonderful drive-thru Christmas display.

Now for fun, how many Christmas Carols can you identify?

1. The apartment of 2 psychiatrists.
2. The lad is a diminutive percussionist.
3. Decorate the entry-ways .
4. Sir Lancelot with laryngitis.
5. A B C D E F G H I J K M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.
6. Present me naught but dual incisors for this festive Yuletide.
7. The smog-less bewitching hour arrived.
8. Exuberation to this orb.
9. 288 Yuletide hours.
10. Do you perceive the same longitudinal pressure which stimulates my auditory sense organs.
11. The red-suited pa is due in this burg.
12. Stepping on the pad cover.
13. Uncouth dolt has his beezer in the booze and thinks he is a Dark Cloud's boyfriend.
14. Far back in a hay bin.
15. Leave and do an elevated broadcast.
16. That exiguous hamlet south of the holy city.
17. Behold! I envisioned a trio of nautical vessels.
18. Listen, the winged heavenly messengers are proclaiming tunefully.
19. A joyful song relative to hollow metallic vessels which vibrate and bring forth a ringing sound when struck.
20. As the guardians of little woolly animal's protected their charges in the shadows of the earth.
21. Frozen precipitation commence
22. Monarchial triad
23. Oh, member of the round table with missing areas
24. Boulder of the tinkling metal spheres
25. Vehicular homicide was committed on Dad's mom by a precipitous darling
26. Wanted in December: top forward incisors
27. We are Kong, Lear, and Nat Cole
28. Cup-shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element
29. Oh small Israel urban center
30. Our fervent hope is that you thoroughly enjoy your yuletide season
31. Parent was observed osculating a red-coated unshaven teamster
32. May the Deity bestow an absence of fatigue to mild male humans
33. Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me.
34. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals.
35. Tranquiltiy upon the terrestrial sphere.
36. Have hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief.



Merry Christmas!

Christmas Traditions

When Braden and Dalton were just babies I had seen this Christmas Tree skirt where you have the kids put their handprints on it each Christmas. I needed a new tree skirt anyway and loved the idea of this precious keepsake. The kids look forward to it each year and it's fun (and sad for me) to see how much they've grown each year.

We have a few other Christmas traditions like new pajamas on Christmas Eve, making reindeer food to leave out for the reindeer, milk and cookies for Santa, baking cookies.

When I was little, I remember going over to my grandpa and grandmas so that my mom and grandma could do all their baking and making Christmas candies like fudge and divinity. Mostly though I remember the red and green popcorn balls everyear. I loved those!

Every year, someone different in the family would hold Christmas Eve at their house. If it wasn't at our house, we'd load the car up with all our gifts and head over to my uncles or grandparents house. Then, just as it was getting dark, my dad, grandpa and uncle would gather all us kids into the car and we'd go "looking for Santa". We'd drive around and point out unidentified ligths in the sky that we were sure were Rudolph and his team. We'd drive around for a while before heading back. I didn't know at the time, but this little diversion gave the women in the family time to fill our stockings and put the Santa presents under the tree. It really was a well rehearsed scene and they had it down perfectly! I remember the feeling of pure magic when we'd walk through the door and see all these presents Santa left and our stockings filled (we always got oranges, apples and bananas in our stockings, along with a few goodies). My mom would always say "oh, you just missed him" lol.

We always celebrated on Christmas Eve because parts of the family couldn't get together on Christmas day due to other family obligations. On Christmas Day, we'd then go over to my grandparents to eat our big Christmas meal which was ham, scalloped potatoes, and beans. And pies. My grandma always made the best pies. Lemon Meringue was my favorite and I remember she'd have them cooling on the wash machine as we'd walk in the door and I could never resist the temptation to sneak off the pretty little peaks of meringue as I walked in. She'd also have to make a Minced Meat pie for my grandpa (he was the only one who liked them) and usually she cooked something like pheasant too that my grandpa got while out hunting.

Our little Christmas traditions have changed now but I know our new traditions will always hold special memories for my kids as well.

Today we have a potluck dinner at Nick's work at noon. Nick volunteered me for the cornbread dressing so I now have a pan of cornbread in the oven. Why couldn't he volunteer me for something super easy and way less time consuming like napkins?