Beautiful Fall Days

After so many days of rain and dreariness, it was nice to finally see the sun (although it's gone again now). And what could be better than gardening on nice autumn days? So Dawn and I planned to use Andy's truck on Saturday to load up with bushes and perennials to do some planting. Dawn was making a new garden at the back of her house and I was just going along to add support, offer advice and suggestions and provide the truck. Well, I ended up buying some things, too. It's very hard to resist when you're at the nursery. It's like being in a candy store to a sugar-aholic. I guess that makes me a bush-aholic or a plant-aholic!

For a long time I've thought I would like some mountain laurel bushes in my gardens. They remind me of the mountains in Pa and I have happy memories of walking in those mountains with my Grandpa. And we also have mountain laurel right here in Mt. Laurel, so how appropriate that I have some of those pretty bushes in my own gardens. I bought 3 bushes and planted them in shade under a huge maple tree. Then I couldn't resist a winterberry bush I saw. I had seen some in a neighborhood park just a few days before. They were very attractive and eye-catching. So when I saw them at the nursery, I had to have one.

Here's my new garden (the white flowers in front of the mountain laurels are white phlox perennials):I've been keeping busy - not just with outdoor work. Last Tuesday, I washed all the windows in our house, inside and outside. Fortunately, we have double hung windows, so I don't have to go outside. But they are very difficult to work and I always need Andy to open them up for me. It doesn't take that long when there are 2 of us working together. I can't get over, though, how a little house like ours has so many windows! But they sure sparkle now - a job well done.

Some of my busyness comes from being with people, developing and maintaining relationships. All our church wives/women went out to eat on Monday evening. What a delightful evening spent with dear friends/co-workers. Most of our time at church is spent with other people, so to be able to have an evening together was a special treat.

On Thursday, I had a lunch appointment with a friend, then left work early to babysit Kira while Dawn had another doctor appointment. Kira was awake by the time I got there so we had a lot of time to play and be together.

Andy and I are facilitating an older singles group (singles in their 30's, 40's & 50s) from church. We meet every other Sunday evening at our house. This past Sunday was a game night. It was such a fun evening with lots of laughs and getting to know each other better. It was extra fun for me, because of 3 games I played, I won 2 of them! Someone brought a Wii game and we played the bowling game. We had played a couple of months ago and I did amazingly well considering that I really stink at real bowling. The funny thing was that Andy who is so good at real bowling, did not do well on the Wii version. Well, this time I outdid myself. I got a spare or strike in every frame of the game with a total score of 167! I can hardly believe it still. But you can imagine how that added to the fun of the evening for me to do so well and Andy to be shocked that I did that well, even beating him soundly! I have to admit it was very satisfying.

The other game we played was LRC using m&m's. I had never heard of that game, but it was a lot of fun. Everyone enjoyed the evening.

Yesterday was Katy's 1st birthday. Andy and I left work early and drove up to spend the afternoon with Amy and the kids. It was a very fun afternoon. Andy played in the sandbox with the kids.Katy opened her present and tried on her coat.We walked to the park and played till the mosquitos drove us back home.I had brought marinated salmon for the grill, potato casserole and pumpkin cupcakes for dinner. We thought we wouldn't see Ricky because he would be working late, but he surprised us by getting home while we were eating.