Superbowl Sunday

For the past several years we have spent

Superbowl Sunday with my husband's family.

His sister Sandy hosts the festivities at her house.

We all contribute to the food and beverage.

This year we opted for just snack type refreshments.

I think next year I want to go back to chili. I'll make it.

The guys put a football pool together.

Takes lots of concentration to figure it out!

I do not think any of us are real football fans,

except maybe Ryan & Brent.

They play on their school teams.

I like to watch the commercials and half-time show.

The commercials were very disappointing this year.

And the loser that attempted to sing the National Anthem should be deported.

It was so embarrassing.

Pepper even got into the fun of the day.

She is a very social pup and loves everyone!

She and Lukas played some ball.

My sister-in-law Christy made some cake balls that

looked just like mini footballs.

She is so clever!

Unfortunately, Garland & I didn't win any off the pool,

but there is always next year!

the new addition

Well I finally have some better pictures of the new rooms that were added on this past year.

It took just about 12 months from start to finish with the addition.

The weather was our biggest enemy.

This is the new den right off the kitchen and connected to out new downstairs bedroom. There is a basement on this side of the house and the stairs are to the left of this picture. We have a small cast iron wood stove down there which we plan to use for secondary heat.

We now spend 99% of our time in this cozy room.

This is our old bedroom upstairs. I repainted the walls applesauce, not totally finished,

still have to paint ceiling. I want this room to have a cottage feel.

The chest of drawers & nightstand were my grandfathers.

I painted them blue years ago and left tops natural.

The bear is made from an old quilt that my mother had from her family.

My family knows that I have a thing for mice...not live ones!

Sister, Anna Marie found this cute display with 25 bisque figures.

It now has a home in the cottage bedroom.

This is our new bedroom on the main floor.

The furniture was a set that

I helped my parents select when they moved to Halifax in 1976.

There is still many things to do, curtains, finish some painting,

get the cabinet doors hung on the

two built in bookcases in den & bedroom....

.and plenty outside work..

But I love our home and hope to have many family & friends to visit!

January 8, 2011 we had some snow,

not a deep snow, but pretty.

So I grabbed my camera

and headed out the door around 7:30 am.

I love the cool colors of new snow.

Especially in the early morning.

I think it is a beautiful time of day, any season!

I like playing with the special effects

that the Picasa application offers.

I am STILL looking for that

BIG DEEP snow this winter!

Pepper, our new border collie pup

After Emma passed, Garland immediately started searching the web for border collie breeders. He found one in Rixeyville, VA, Faithridge Border Collies. After many long phone calls with Bridget and 2 trips (7 hours round trip) we came home with Pepper.

Here she is with her Nanny on her first day home.

Her right eye is mostly blue and the left eye has a little blue in it too.

Here she is eating my flowers!

Garland already teaching her tricks.

What a cutie!!!!!

Christmas 2010

I think this is the first Christmas in many years that I was not all humbugish! Is that a word? I started decorating right after Thanksgiving. I think the key to getting in the spirit is to get an early start..it also helps to have a finished renovation of ones home...last year we started an addition to the cabin in October and it was completed this past October..

I have not been blogging since August...so I am a little rusty...lots to share so I guess there will be many posts... we have a faster connection at home now, so I should be able to blog here in stead of at work..the boss is not happy when i am goofing off.

Emma & Friends

As you can see Emma made many friends.

I think she really enjoyed our camping trips

when she met so many nice people, young & old.

The children always asked if they could pet her.

Brent & Emma enjoyed relaxing after a busy day hiking.



Sandy, Where did you get those sunglasses?

I love my Dawn!!!

Emma loved to play

I think the one thing Emma loved more than us, was playing. She was a freak when it came to catching a frisbee. She would turn circles before you threw it...

It didn't matter what time of day...she would even want to play in the dark..

And she loved people! She was not fond of other dogs, except for Oscar and Nessie.

She had this wiggle and goofy sound she would make when company came over. And she always had to "pinch" her Nannie (Ruby). She actually was so hyper for the first 3-4 years that I didn't invite company over except for family. It really was only in this past year that she started to calm down more and we even started camping with her.

Most mornings we would get a few good throws in before work... or maybe we would walk the driveway a few times, then she knew I was ready to go and she would head up to the front porch to sit on the old church pew. There were so many times that I felt guilty leaving her, and just wish I could stay with her all day. And in the evening when I would come home, she would be up the driveway further than she should have been, and she would see me and high tail it back down to the cabin, and then sit there like she had been there all the time.