A little excitement

I'm so glad it's Friday.

It's been a long week.

I was looking forward to some down time when we got home after school today.

Did I mention it's been a long week?  I can't put my finger on just why it wasn't so great, but I'm extremely excited that the weekend is here.

Earlier in the week Brent and I had talked about going to the next town over for their First Friday celebration.

We had never been there before, but heard sometimes there is a lot of excitement.

Shops are open late into the evening.  Food booths are open on the street.  People frequent the outdoor tables at the coffee shop, and mill around talking to friends on the street.  It happens the first Friday of every month, year round.

After the week, though, I thought I didn't want to go, so I got busy making supper.  Hamburgers with all the fixings, roasted potatoes/sweet potatoes, and cottage cheese and applesauce.  The kids and I had even hunkered down and started watching a movie.

After supper, Brent decided maybe we needed to head out and see what all the hype was about.  Our town has nothing like it.  We've only got about 1200 residents, and a town that seems to be stuck in the past.

The next town which hosts the First Friday celebrations has about 32,000 people and has fixed up all their storefronts to look as they would've back in the time when the town was first established.

It took us awhile to find a parking spot, and  the kids really were not that thrilled, but off we went.  Up and down the streets....

taking in all the decorations...

people watching...

and doing a little shopping ourselves.

First to the candy shoppe where we know the owners, and Brent got a sample box....then off to the bookstore, which is owned by a former classmate of his.
This was my pick, and I had a great time looking...and buying.

Just looking around at the bare brick walls, and funky lighting and all the books, made my heart happy after such a long week.

What ended up being an afterthought, really was ok after all.  Brent even hung out with some high school buddies at the bookstore while the kids and I looked around.

I'm glad we went.  Now we know what it's like.  Maybe when the weather is better we'll go back.

Snow...and all that that entails.

Last night we had a bit of a winter storm.

The kids and I went to get groceries right after school, and drove home in the midst of it.  Scary stuff.  What normally takes us 20minutes to get home on back roads, took 1 hour on main roads.  I was about ready to kiss the ground when I drove in the garage.

This storm, however, led to a 2-hour delay this morning.

And I'm not complaining one bit about that extra sleep.

After I got the call about the delay I promptly went back to sleep, only to dream about a naughty 2nd grade amish boy I have at my recess everyday.  In the dream he not only got into trouble once, but three times on my watch.  (Was this a premonition for today?)

I had my morning breakfast (usually at 6am) at 7:30am instead.  It was nice to eat with the sun coming in the windows instead of the nightlight on the barn shining through them. 

An hour before the kids and I left, Brent calls to tell me this, and I quote, "They have plowed out the road at the end of ours, but not ours, so you'll need to time it right, and take a running start to get out onto the other road."    Really? Are you serious?  This, unfortunately is not surprising, our county NEVER plows out our gravel road.  Sad, but true.

The kids were very happy about the snow,though, and so was Rudy.

This is his favorite time of year.  Cooler weather, and fun in the snow.  He takes is guard duty seriously every night too, as he stuffs his body into our wicker chair on the porch.

I guess it's that time of year to realize...Winter really IS coming.  So it's time to get on board!

Giveaway Winner!

It's time to announce the winner of the giveaway I posted last Wednesday.

I was so excited to have a giveaway for the first time, and to get some more WONDERFUL followers.

I so enjoyed putting the things together for the giveaway.  I plan to have some of these things in my Etsy shop once I get some inventory compiled.

So, without further ado...the winner is.....JAN!!!! (aka anonymous).  Which is hilarious, because Jan is my old neighbor.  I can't imagine anyone more deserving.  We LOVED having her and her husband and son as our neighbors.
The drawing was fair and square too, I used random.org.

Jan was #6.  Congrats.  I'll get the box out to you this week!

(disclaimer...when I put in the number 39, it generated 6.  I don't know why 100 keeps showing up!)

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:6Powered by RANDOM.ORG