WE ARE OUT AT SEA

We all stayed in the same hotel room so IR slept with hubbie and I and CA slept with daughter and son-in-love so the girls were up early giving us plenty of time to get ready for our day.
I'm excited but also very apprehensive as this is hubbie and my first cruise.  We started talking about doing this with daughter and her family last spring but when CA came along with her heart problems I thought it wouldn't happen.  After CA's surgery and talking with the doctor who said she would be perfectly fine to do anything any other baby could do we decided to check for any rooms left on this particular ship as some of son-in-love's family were cruising and already all had their reservations.
At first the travel agent said there were rooms but she couldn't give us numbers or locations. We were afraid of this set up and didn't want to make the long drive to Cape Canaveral, Fl to be disappointed especially since it was our first trip. Daughter and son-in-love have cruised several times.
As time got closer to actually paying for the cruise rooms began to open up and we were both able to get rooms with a balcony just down the hall from one another on the 9th deck so we signed up.
We had a very nice continental breakfast at the hotel before we were transported to the port from our hotel. It was a scary ride as our driver was bobbing in and out of heavy traffic all the way there.
My apprehension increased when the huge cruise ship came into view and as I looked across the at Addie, son-in-love's niece and saw her crying out of fear of her first cruise also I knew exactly how she felt.
After the driver dropped us and our luggage off and the luggage check folks started shouting and herding us around hubbie and I were separated from everyone. My apprehension quickly turned to anger as there was certainly no compassion for first time cruisers who didn't know what line to be in or where to stand. I need crutches to use at night when I go to the bathroom so I had these strapped to my luggage and that seemed to present a huge problem to the luggage scanning folks ????
Anyway by the time we were linked back up with daughter and the rest of our companions I had lost my apprehension and as Addie and I together stepped from the dock onto the cruise ship all I felt was relief that I was on the ship.
We went up to the 10th floor and had lunch while our rooms were getting ready. The all you can eat buffet was really nice.
We got our things into our rooms and then went up on the top deck to watch us leave the port. I wasn't sure how land vanishing from my sight would make me feel and I would be lying if I said it didn't make me feel pretty helpless but I knew the Lord was in control.

We went to get ready for dinner and these 2 seemed like they didn't know any difference on land or sea.

When  we started getting ready for dinner I started feeling the movement of the ship and as we went down to the 4th deck and sat down for dinner I noticed the chandeliers were swinging. I started feeling very queasy and before my dinner arrived I excused myself and headed back to the room to lay down in hopes of not starting to throw up.

Thankfully it worked and if I layed on my back perfectly still the sick feeling subsided even enough to eat some fruit that hubbie and daughter brought up to me after they finished their dinner.

I stayed in the room the rest of the evening hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Praying for a safe trip.

God Bless and Good Night

FLORIDA HERE WE COME

Early wake-up and away we went ,headed to Cocoa Beach Florida to hopefully have a little time to spend on the beach this afternoon.

We barely got all our things packed in this Suburban and it was nice for me to have the back seat with some luggage to sleep on the way. Son-in-love was driving and when I woke from my sleep we were already in Georgia and looking for a place to have breakfast.

We got caught in traffic in a couple places but still made it to our hotel on Cocoa Beach in about 9.5 hours. We unloaded all our luggage and daughter and son-in-love went to return the suburban to the rental place down the road.

 This was our view for the evening.

We spent some time at the pool and the beach with some of son-in-love's family.

We had supper at a nearby pier restaurant with was very good then enjoyed the evening.

We walked to a nearby grocery store for a couple things we already realized we forgot and then settled in for the night.

D-in-love sent this pic of RL, EL and BB at the movies today and said the farm was all good.

Thankful for the traveling mercies of this day and all the blessings the day held.

God Bless and Good Night.

THANKSGIVING DAY SPENT PACKING

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone !!
As I am everyday I am thankful for another beautiful sunrise.

Today was a day of packing and getting things ready for us to be gone over a week. #1 son and d-in-love are going to take care of things while we are gone .
They are in Tennessee today visiting d-in-love's grandmother and they sent these pics of the kids with Santa Claus in the big outdoor world shopping center they stopped at.

#2 son and Tif had an interesting day as this passel of puppies showed up on their doorstep this morning. Thankfully they found owner just down the road and got the puppies back home.

Another reason to celebrate this day is this little miracle girl turns 6 months old today.

Hubbie and son-in-love picked the rental Suburban up tonight and we loaded all our luggage in it to be ready to head out about 4 am tomorrow. We decided to rent a vehicle large enough for all of us and our luggage so we could ride together.

Thankful for this day and all it's blessings.

God Bless, Good Night and Happy Thanksgiving.

HAPPY EARLY THANKSGIVING

We had decided earlier this month to have our Thanksgiving tonight as some of the kids have other plans for Thanksgiving day and hubbie and I will need to be packing for our cruise and getting into bed early for a very early wake up time on Friday morning to head to Florida.  All of this packing depends on hubbie's results from his test today.  We first went to the doctor's office to have blood drawn for a blood test the doctor said he needed to see what his risk is for cancer. We then headed up to Pardee hospitals cancer center for a chest x-ray. Neither of these took very long and we were heading home mid morning. Daughter called and said IR was begging to come play here today so we picked her up on our way home.
I came home and started cooking for tonight while hubbie and IR enjoyed a beautiful day playing outside and inside.

Thankfully it wasn't long until the doctor's office called and said hubbie's x-ray was clear and that we should go ahead with our cruise and they made an appointment for December 20 to have the deeper cut made.
Everyone made it to our early Thanksgiving and enjoyed all the food and fellowship for a wonderful evening.

 Even this little "turkey" enjoyed her first Thanksgiving !!

More than Thankful this year for the blessing of this past year and the joy of family.
Good Night, God Bless and Happy Thanksgiving.

BUSY BEFORE THANKSGIVING TUESDAY MARKET DAY

Today is one of my least favorite days and today mine started off roughly as I woke with a sinus pressure headache,

Hubbie took g-son to school while RL watched me get ready for market. We had both my Honda and hubbie's truck loaded to the brim with baked good orders and things to sell off our tables.

I got chores done and then RL and I headed out to her pre-school while hubbie went by daughters to pick up some early orders she had while she finished baking her sour dough bread.

When I got to market there were several people waiting for me so the day started out just as hectic as I expected and it stayed that way pretty much all day. Daughter and I worked hard waiting on customers while hubbie took care of the girls with help from Sue the market manager and a couple other vendors who love these girls.

He and IR picked up RL and brought lunch back for them. They ate a hamburger each and then hubbie took them home to play outside in their playhouse trailer.

Daughter and I were late packing up with late customers still getting desserts for Thanksgiving dinners and we changed out the fall table decorations for Christmas before we left.

We left market and daughter went to deliver some more orders and I made stops at the bank, the PO and Aldi for things for Thanksgiving lunch.

I came home and hubbie helped me get unloaded and get things put away. We have more orders to deliver tomorrow and even one 14 caramel cake order to deliver on Thanksgiving day but at least the busiest time is over.

I had a little down time reading to the girls before they went home this evening.

Ben and Addie came by to pick up a dog crate for their little dog as they are also cruising with us and a friend is keeping their dog.

After everyone left we got chores done and then latterly crashed for the evening as both of us are feeling under the weather again and so very tired after the last couple days.
Beautiful sunset this evening.

Thankful for the blessings of this day and praying for hubbie's test tomorrow.

God Bless and Good Night

CRAZY BUSY BAKING DAY

Today is going to be a very busy day since tomorrow is the only Tuesday market day for me and daughter and I have a lot of orders.
Hubbie has his annual physical bloodwork draw this morning so he dropped g-son at school and headed to Asheville.
RL and I got ready and headed for her pre-school. I had not shut up the chickens last night knowing I would be late with the chores this morning.
There was a very heavy frost this morning in the mid 20's temps.

On my way home from dropping her off I stopped by the Co-op for some candied ginger and by Ingles to pick up some baking supplies .
Hubbie was home when I got here and helped me get late chores done and then I got laundry started,
There wasn't time to start my baking before picking up RL so I put away laundry.
The repairs hubbie did to my washing machine have been working until today and after trying to get the first load to spin twice I gave up and hung them up on the outside clothes line thankful that today is a warm sunny day.
While I was trying to get the washer to spin hubbie went alone to pick up RL and they came back for lunch while I got my baking started.
I tried another load of laundry on a different cycle and ended up putting this in the dryer after only a short spin and it took all afternoon to dry them.
I baked 12 caramel cakes, 2 chocolate, 5 pound cakes, 1 applesauce and 1 blackberry wine cake.
I took them out of the ovens just as hubbie got a call from his dermatologist with some bad news.
The call informed him that the spot he had taken off his upper back was a melanoma cancer and that he needed to have a chest x-ray and blood test immediately to determine the extent of the cancer and then they would choose a date to have the surgery to do a deeper cut and hope the cancer wasn't any deeper.
This could certainly change our cruise plans if the blood test or x-ray that are scheduled for Wednesday show anything.
This is very scary news for us.  I went through similar news and surgery several years ago but I didn't have blood test or x-rays but my melanoma was on my arm and his is on his back so maybe that makes a difference.
Anyway after a short time of gut wrenching we both got back to work with our regular work day.
I had to get weekly paperwork done and pay bills early this week since Thursday is Thanksgiving and tomorrow will be my errand day.
I got chores done then spent this Monday night in the kitchen icing cakes and getting things ready for market.
Daughter was having some issues trying to finish her baking with CA wanting to be carried and IR snitching bran muffins from an order she had made.

I was sure glad to get into bed but my head seemed to cease up and I found myself not being able to breath through my nose at all so sleep was not easy to come.
Thankful for the blessings of this day and praying that it is God's will for  hubbie to have a good outcome with his melanoma.
God Bless and Good Night

NAILS SUNDAY

Let me apologize to my faithful blog followers about my lack of blog post recently. I had written the next 3 post right before Thanksgiving and meant to post them but I had trouble downloading pictures and after a couple frustrating evenings trying to resolve the problem I decided I really didn't have time with everything else going on at this time to give any more time to this at that time.
We have had a very busy holiday season and I just never got around to donating any more time to my blog and I did get out of the habit and everyone knows how hard it is to get back into a routine. Hopefully I can catch everyone up with all the goings on in the next few post.

Up to get chores done and get to church.  Today is a spaghetti day so we made the sauce before we left.
We came home to have lunch with #1 son's family, #2 son and Tif, and daughter's family. D-in-love made it back from the women's retreat in Pidgeon Forge this weekend with 43 other ladies from our church.

After we ate daughter and I went to the local nail salon and got pedicures and manicures. This is what I choose. Normally I wouldn't think about getting my toe nails painted this time of year but hubbie and I are going with daughter's family on our first ever cruise coming up soon so these sparkly red toe nails will be exposed !!

I came home to get chores done and then hubbie and I relaxed for the evening .
Thankful for the blessings of this day.
God Bless and Good Night

RAINY SATURDAY MARKET DAY

Pouring rain pounding the metal roof woke me up this morning. As I got dressed I hoped for a break in the heavy downpour to get chores done this morning and thankfully we got one just long enough for hubbie to load the cars and for me to get all the animals fed.
We headed out to market on time and drove through another spell of pouring rain all the way there.
Daughter came in right behind us and we all got set up.
A couple of son-in-love's brothers came by and helped us get things carried in through the rain, thanks Ben and Jason.
Daughter and the girls left shortly to get down to her inlaws house in Green Creek to have their Thanksgiving dinner early today.
Hubbie stayed all day to help today since the rain fell steadily all day and I had too many racks with mine and daughters to haul home.
We both came straight home with loaded vehicles and unloaded and got things put away.
Hubbie made a trip back to Sam's Club while I rested as I am coughing more today and don't feel very good this afternoon.
I just cozied up with a nice warm blanket and watched the rain fall outside the living room window while he was gone.
We both rested until choretime and then put on our rain gear which hasn't gotten much use lately and headed out.
There was already 1.6 inches of rain in the gauge and it is still raining pretty steady.
I found the injured rooster and out him in the empty Silkie lot so he can continue his healing from the attack of big red the dominate rooster of the farm. These 2 got along for a long time but you never know when things between roosters will get nasty and this older rooster got the worst end of it this time.
The 2 younger wayward guineas seem to have co-habituated with the older group of guineas today so that is what I was hoping for.
I got back inside and took my spot back under the blanket for the evening.
The weather predictions for the next week continue to be up and down.

Thankful for the blessings of this day and praying that whatever I have will be short lived and I feel better soon.
Thankful for all the blessings of this day.
God Bless and Good Night.

BUSY FRIDAY

Friday , yea !!!  And this Friday is  starting out differently and very restful for us. D-in-love is taking the day off work to help out at RL's pre-school with their Thanksgiving "feast" so she is taking g-son to school also.
If the old saying "red sky in the morning, sailers take warning" has any bearing we are gearing up for some rough weather as this sky this morning is beautiful.

Hubbie and I got chores done and had breakfast then we headed to Fletcher feed to get restocked on chicken feed.
As soon as we got the feed unloaded Re brought BB by to stay with us while she is going on a ladies retreat with d-in-love and a bunch of other ladies from church. BB enjoyed helping hubbie with all his outside work this morning. They got the round swing taken down for the winter.

BB told me he was keeping a good eye on Pawpaw as he climbed onto the roof to blow out the gutters one more time.

Then he got his turn at blowing the leaves .

While they worked outside I baked cakes. I baked 12 caramel, 3 pound, 1 applesauce, 1 blackberry wine and a pan of brownies.

We had a late lunch then while BB rested and watched TV insisting he did not need a nap but just needed to rest I took my turn outside working . I opened the greenhouse door this morning letting the 2 guineas that keep tearing down the netting over the Silkie lot and the injured rooster out.

I went in and cleaned out the green house and got it ready for the Silkies to be moved into it for the winter. 

By the time I finished this it was time for me to go pick up EL from school. She was all smiles when she saw me pull up to pick her up. We came home and after a snack she settled in with BB and pawpaw in front of the TV.

I went outside to look for the injured rooster that came out of the greenhouse but couldn't find him anywhere.

Hubbie and I took turns getting chores done and then I went back out to move the Silkies when they went into their house.

The 2 wayward guineas were in their house also and had already torn down the netting over the lot which I needed to remove for the winter anyway.

I got the 21 Silkies moved along with 1 big pullet that insist on staying with them into the green house and then came inside to heat up a pizza Re brought over for the kids supper.

I could hear Aa on the combine across the creek in the corn fields so I knew it would be later when he came to pick them up.

After they all left I spent the evening in the kitchen icing cakes and getting things ready for market.

It's going to be a rainy Saturday so have no idea how busy we will be.

Thankful for the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night