More pics of our NC visit.  I just added our day at the Biltmore Estate!

Go here to see them all!

Nov 6 - Happy Anniversary Amy and Andrew
Today Amy and Andrew will be celebrating their 4th wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe that their big day was that long ago.  Time has just flown by.

So many things have changed for them in these last four years and I'm sure the next 4 will be the same way.  They are busy following their dreams and enjoying life together.  What a blessing to have them in our family.  We look forward to seeing where God will lead them in the years to come.

Happy Anniversary you two!

We love you both!

National Parks Postcards

You may remember that we discovered some great vintage reproduction National Parks postcards when we were at the Grand Canyon.

Well, we saw a similar poster at Great Smoky Mountain National Park yesterday and wondered if we could find more of the postcards for the Eastern parks.  They didn't have them at the Visitor Center, but they did have notecards and we looked at the package to find the website where we could buy the ones that we want.

This is what the Smoky Mountain one looks like and there are others for parks we visited as well.  I'll be placing an order for a few when we get home.  Then we want to put them all in a large frame and hang it in our office with the rest of our travel posters.  So far, all the ones we've bought have this vintage look.  Kinda fun, huh?

We're enjoying Fall in North Carolina!

For those few people out there that check my blog but are NOT on Facebook, here's a link to some photos that I've been posting of our trip to see Terry's Dad and his wife, Ginny in Hendersonville, NC.  This is them in the photo (left).  They do a lot of walking around town.  They live less than a mile from Main Street, so have access to a bunch of fun places to visit when they're out and about.

Tomorrow  we'll drive to Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  The park is celebrating their 75th Anniversary this year.  I will be taking my National Parks passport book to get stamped and we'll try to find a poster or postcard from the park that we can include in our collection of places that we've visited that hangs in our office. 

Check out these gorgeous red leaves that were on a tree right on main street.  Aren't they amazing?

I hope you enjoy the other pics too.  I'm trying to post a few more each day, so check back again later too.

It's Fall in Arizona!

I wore a jacket and scarf last week and this week we're enjoying the cool crisp air in North Carolina!

Here's a great recipe for Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili that I found on BettyCrocker.com.  I tried it last year and it's VERY easy and delicious!

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween just isn't what it used to be for me.  I've definitely done my fair share of trick-or-treating.  In fact, growing up in Ohio, we used to dress up and go out as early as possible all around the neighborhood and fill a large paper grocery bag with candy until it was so full that we could barely carry it.  Then we'd go back home, just to get another empty bag and head out again.  My favorite house to go to was the one that gave out hot apple cider and fresh donuts!  Mmmmm...

As a youngster, part of the fun of Halloween was figuring out what kind of costume to have my mom make.  She never used a pattern and NEVER bought those cheesy costumes with the stiff plastic masks from the 5 and Dime store.  We always came up with unique ideas and she just figured out a way to make it work.  I guess that's what you do when you have 6 kids and not a lot of money or ways to get to the store.

I'll admit that one year she got a little TOO creative and decided that I should be Mother Nature for Halloween.  Now what would you imagine Mother Nature to look like?  She decided that I should have leaves sewn all over my leotard (which later became dead and brown) and that's all I remember of it.  I also recall that my sister was a beautiful sparkly silver Christmas package with a huge red bow in her hair that year and she won a prize for the prettiest costume at our neighborhood Halloween Party.  People just kept looking at me and asking, "What are you supposed to be?"  (Not my most fun Halloween to be sure.)

I do know how to get in the Halloween spirit, as evidenced by this photos of me as an adult.  I'm the scarecrow on the left and yes, my belly was stuffed with straw.  This was at California Institute of the Arts where I worked in the Accounting office.  My boss, Christina (on the right) was so excited about Halloween that she would take vacation days just to decorate the office.  We won the CalArts contest almost every year for the best decorated office on campus.  She was the mastermind of it all.  I was just there to help.  That was in the mid-90's and may have been the last time I dressed up for Halloween.

I have had a lot of fun continuing the tradition of creative costume designs with our kids too.  It was always a challenge for them to come up with an idea and for us to make something from nothing.  Often times it was a matter of some thrift store shopping with a few alterations, props, accessories or make up.  Other times it was just whatever we could do to bring an idea to life.  As they got older they created their own costumes and they were much more creative than I ever was.

These last 2 shots are the first time we dressed Amy up for Halloween.  She was 17 months old and I debated and debated about whether to do anything.  On Halloween Day I decided it would be fun, so we went down the street to the nearby Salvation Army Thrift store and I bought her whole costume.  I love the one of her looking at her own face in the mirror.

So for those who love this holiday, have an awesome spooky day!  I'm perfectly content to decorate for Autumn and avoid all that scary stuff.  I enjoy watching others celebrate the holiday and that's good with me.

In fact at the very moment when this is scheduled to post, Terry and I will be on our way to North Carolina to visit his Dad and wife, so we'll pretty much miss Halloween altogether unless they have trick-or-treaters at their house.  But we're o.k. with that.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!

Christmas Decor:

Can you believe that Christmas is right around the corner?

Only 8 weeks away!  Wow!  How are you doing on your Christmas shopping?  I'm hoping to pick up a few unique items when we're in North Carolina this week. Terry and I probably won't do a lot for each other's gifts since we've had some extra fun traveling this year.

But, I love decorating for Christmas!  I have quite a few stores that I like to check out for decorations.  Some are a little pricey, but I like to look anyway, especially for potential after Christmas sales.  Others have a wide range of prices that make some items a great deal anytime.

Crate and Barrel has some of my favorite ornaments at very reasonable prices.

Restoration Hardware has more retro, classic, but unique items, but still some sweet finds.

Target also has nice things for very reasonable prices.

After Christmas when this pillow goes on sale, I want to get a couple of these from Pottery Barn.  I really like it, but wouldn't pay $50 for any pillow cover, no matter how nice it is.  I think the colors have great potential for several of my rooms.  Can you see it on my red sofa or with the blues and greens in the Family Room?  It would even work on the patchwork quilt on our bed!  It's great to have options.

We're looking forward to a fun holiday season!  Hope you are too.

HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Today is Terry's dad's birthday and here are a few photos from his life!  

This first one is of him and his brother, Dick.

I love this one of him trying to do yard work with an injured foot.  What a hero!  I wonder if he actually got anything done that day.

And check out the primitive backpack that he used to carry Julie around when they were camping.  Pretty interesting, huh?

And then there's this awesome one of all the Hann boys.  Did you know that our Amy was the first Hann girl born in 3 generations?  Terry's little sister Julie was adopted.   Coincidentally, Amy is in the bottom photo with Dad, Ginny, Terry and I.  We were eating at the Mining Camp, one of the Hann family's favorite places to go.  Everything is served family style (all you can eat).  What other place would you want to go with 5 hungry boys to feed?

We are so blessed to have Terry Sr. (Theron) in our lives.  Especially for me, since my dad passed away when I was 20 years old.  Terry (Sr.) is the only grandfather that our children have ever known and they love him dearly.

He's such a sweet man, full of love, joy, compassion and kindness.  He loves to laugh, joke and have fun!

We're looking forward to celebrating his big birthday when we're back there visiting next week!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!  SEE YOU SOON TO CELEBRATE YOUR BIG DAY!

(Ginny, Don't forget that you can click on each of this photos to make them cover the whole screen.)