Generosity and Gratitude

It's November.... 

It seems hard to believe that autumn has come and delivered the most glorious displays of fall color that I have ever seen.  Truly.  Perhaps I have seen them before - bright oranges, yellows, firey reds... but this season, I experienced them.  I saw them with delight and surprise.  I pointed them out to Zoey.  She pointed them out to me.  "Look at that one!" "Sooo pretty!"

That and autumn has seemed to rush on through....  School days, playdates, lunches, coffee talks with friends...  Working, volunteering...  Family trips, anniversaries, milestones, birthdays, and Halloween... I didn't post a single thing in October.  And here it is November...

This morning I wrote a thank you note to a man and his son for contributing to the fundraiser I started last year.  This year we spent September raising funds to put shoes on kids' feet here in this county.  This man, a dentist, was told about the program by one of our members and he said he'd think about a donation.  That night he went home and his teenage son asked about getting a new pair of shoes for cross country.  The dentist told his son that if he was willing to put $60 of his own money towards the shoes, he'd donate it to our cause and buy the kid his shoes.  He did.

Now, I don't know this man or his son...  but I must say it was so nice to get that $60 check in the mail.  See, $60 is worth two shoe tags - two pairs of shoes for two kids.  That teen - that dentist's son, who probably doesn't have a monetary need in this world, had a conversation with his dad about giving.  That's where it all starts... a conversation.  My hope is that this young kid will grow up with a place in his heart that is compassionate... not just because he gave $60 toward his own cross country shoes... but because he was given the chance to think about someone else. 

And that's where I'll start this month of gratitude...  I'm thankful for the opportunity to get out in our community and talk with people.  It's not about raising money or even helping out people... For me, it's creating a conversation - this time it happened to be about generosity straight up.  Usually, it's much more basic than that. 

4. "Tree"

Muskingum Park, November 2011

Dogwood Blooms, Miller Manor, April 2011

Since I didn't take these specifically for the project, I thought I'd give you two.  I didn't go out in search of tree photos this weekend.  Which is sad because I love trees!!  But, life happens.... and these pictures haven't seen any love yet.  :)

Enjoy.

Watoga Part 5: Lewisburg

Have you forgotten about our epic trip to Watoga yet?!  I'll never forget it, but truthfully, I've gotten past the blogness of it all...  at least for a bit.  So, here is a much condensed memory post of our time after we finished lunch on Saturday. 

Mom decided she wanted to see Lewisburg.  We were close and, hey, why not.  I didn't know much about the little town (still really don't), but I had heard good things from Nikki even before we set our sites on this adventure.

2011's Coolest Small Town.  Dig it.

Since we had already eaten lunch and had planned on dinner back at the cabin, there wasn't a whole lot for our varied group to do.  (Remember ages 3 to 64.... various interests, you can see.)  We did check out the visitor's bureau.  I thought our friends had had a hand in designing or at least conceptualizing the media in the area, but alas, I was wrong.  They don't have Greenbrier County as a client.  Oh well, it was still a pleasant place to look around with a clean bathroom and two people behind the counter that just didn't know what to make of us.  They were nice however.  :)

Zoey on the "stage" at the visitors' center.

Miss Zoey was happy as a clam on the wee "stage" in the corner of the place.  It was literally 4-6 inches off the ground, but a stage none-the-less!  She danced and pretended to sing.  We have quite the thespian on our hands...  gee, go figure!?  ;)

Once we finally convinced Zoey that we should actually walk around and see part of the town, we headed off to window shop.  We stumbled upon a book shop with fancy toys and some other various kitschy places.  I think there are some galleries there, but we missed them.  (Mom did find a church key to help with the beer opening problem!)

Window shopping

The walking was taking a toll on the spectrum of us.  The Strothers headed in one direction, Mom took a seat on a bench outside of a shop, and Z and I walked on to find the car.

Right near where we parked the car, Zoey and I found this beautiful site.  The trees were magnificent and there seemed to be a wedding set-up in progress.  We decided to take full advantage of our time and play in the leaves!  We even saw a praying mantis.  And, of course, we had to sit in at least a few of the pristine white wedding chairs that had been assembled in rows. 

Watoga Part One.  Part Two.  Part Three.  Part Four.  and yes, more to come...  ;)

Catch up CUTENESS!! Halloween edition

One of my sweet hubby's favorite holidays is Halloween.  I like it too - but not nearly as much as he does.  That is, until this year!!  (Ok, so I have always liked dressing up - putting on fun makeup and hanging out with my friends...)  But THIS year, Zoey understood Halloween and we took her Trick-or-Treating!

Truthfully, I wasn't too cracked up about it at first.  I mean, would she get it?  Would it be worth it?  We don't even let her eat a bunch of candy...  hmmm...

OH SO WORTH IT!!!  She was SOOO excited!  She was SOO cute!  And yes, taking her TorTing was my favorite part of the WHOLE holiday!!!  I'd rather go walk the cold streets in search of candy happiness with her and John than go to any stinkin' "adult" party ever!

Zoey was a cat.  She even had her kitty scratch dance down to an adorable - melt-your-heart science!

I was having a wee bit of focus trouble the whole night - but this one I love anyway.  I think it should be a card or something.

Knocking on the first candy-filled house.  She was not shy at all!!

Our neighbor and the first candy hitting the bottom of her bag!

Daddy and Z leaving the first house - seeing the MOON!!

Me as a witch - leaving another neighbor's house.  We took those neighbors some coffin brownies! 

Another house down the street.  It's blurry, yes, but I was so amazed that she didn't have an ounce of shyness in her that night!!  (Except for one house that had a man answer the door and his porch had scary decorations... but that's just her good sense.)  ;)

A girl and her bounty.

"Now, this is my candy...."

 And here are some pictures from earlier that day....

Breakfast.

Zoey "helping" me.  She decorated her own brownie pieces.  :)

Coffin brownies.  (Ok, yes, it's fun to go to parties too!) 

Watoga Part 3: Pancakes on McNickle and a walk.

Cabin #7.  (It is actually much bigger than it looks!)

 I believe it has been long enough since I sat down to update the ol' blog... well, that I can't remember much detail now!  ha!  No, seriously, I made an outline of what happened and which pictures to use the first night I started this whole Watoga saga.  Now, I have lost it.  (Outline?  What?  Yep, I am an English teacher's kid and I'm a geek, yo.)  So, I'll settle my future-me brain to remember via pretty pictures.  :)

 After the first night of me waking up every single hour to put more logs on the fire, we all got up to eat a yummy breakfast!  Tracy brought home made pancake batter and cooked it up on cast iron.  We also had bacon! And coffee (using bottled water to try to change the taste this time...  no luck, must've been the coffee pot.)  And toast from the Bakery!  weeee.  And cereal, just in case.

Zoey likes pancakes.  nom. nom. nom.

So does Aunt Tracy...  I kept the photo of her shoving a fork-full into her mouth off of the web. thankyouverymuch. ;)

The two pictures here on the left are specifically for Mom and Barbara.  Mom just loved that we ate on McNickle China and kept saying how much Barbara would like it too.  So I took some snaps of the dishes.  They have the WV state seal on the top and various outdoor/animal scenes on them.  Pretty cool. 


After brekky-poo, Mom hung out at the cabin and the rest of us walked up to the lodge.  We needed some activity and to call John.  We had decided not to leave Dad at Watoga and needed to tell him he didn't have to  drive the 5 hours to get there.  We did miss him (especially now that he's not in any of the pictures of our fun family outing), but it was best because Mom, Z, and I ended up leaving on Sunday anyway. 

Me calling John on the pay phone.  It was a bit gross... and I was a bit peeved that it was the only source of communication (beside smoke signals, I assume).  It worked.  **Keith, you never did tell me how much it cost?!  Hope it wasn't $10/minute!  eek!

 Our walk was pleasant.  Zoey walked part of the way, ran part of the way, and was carried most of the way.  Too bad she refused to let anyone else carry her.  Everyone offered... she made me do it. Oh well, we had fun.  It was just one of those moments where I wished I had a toddler backpack or Ergo or something! Even my old-school Moby knock-off - although I don't know if it would have fit her nowadays.  (If I actually hiked in my real life, I'd consider buying one for a big kid.) 

The CCC worker statue.  Reminds me a bit of Grandpa Buss. 

We took many pictures on our little walk to the lodge.  Delia took some too (while I carried Zoey).

The happy hiking couple.

Cousins playing at the lodge.  Leaves are FUN!

Mom drove up and "rescued" some of us...  from a walk back to the cabin.  :)

Poor Tracy forgot her "Very Important Parks Person" pass to get stamped.  I felt bad - espcially since I doubt we'll ever go back.  But who knows?!  Now that we know how to get there - it wouldn't be bad.  (**Knocking out Mom for the drive... however.**)

We did have a most wonderful morning...  just hanging out.  Cooking.  Setting off the smoke detector...  oh wait, I didn't mention that?!  :)   After the walk, we decided to look for lunch in town... 

**This is where you see the screen fade to black and "...to be continued."  flash across.  :) 

Carving Pumpkins

Catch up time!  (Man, I'm getting a bunch of blog time while John is gone... )  :)  Halloween Prep...  Pumpkin carving!! 

 Zoey drew on the big pumpkin and John turned her drawing into the face.  Pretty cool!  Last year, she made a giant face and he carved out parts of it.  This year she made a pretty simple face, so John added a wee bit to it (still following her lead and using her eyes as a guide as well as her smile line for the top of the mouth).

guts.

Pumpkin master.

mad scientist.

She seriously just decided to climb onto Daddy at one point.

Family portrait with pumpkin smile.

Family portrait 2.



The multi-layers of the evening: pumpkin top, carver, most delicious sam's octoberfest, jack o'lantern fun!



da Pumpkins!

Autumn.

This reminds me of The Secret Garden - discovering the doorway...

Running with delight.

*Note to self:  I didn't "process" any of these... yet.  I may have to print some for the walls of the Manor. 
**Note to family:  If you want specific pictures for Christmas/Solstice gifts, please let me know.  (That goes for any type of picture, not just these.)  xoxo 

Photos: Playing in the leaves

I'll take a break from the Watoga series to bring you...  total cuteness!!  total beauty!!  Total photos (sort of)...

 Zoey and I played in the leaves many times this autumn.  These pictures (and more "artsy-fartsy" ones to come) were taken on November 4th.  Not too bad on the turnover time.  ;) 

joy.

laughter.

oh, those eyes...

Weeee!