Our world

One morning we woke up and it was fall ... beautiful leaf color all around and the joys of scarecrows and pumpkins showing up in all those rich earth colors ... simply glorious.

Then we woke up to this .... rime ice on the tops of the mountains, and leaf color at the base. This picture was taken from the profile trail (Grandfather Mountain) on Sunday just past and posted on the weatherman's site. Isn't it spectacular?

This picture was taken the same day from someone on Beech Mountain. Crisp, clean, beautiful white scenery. This also came from Ray's weather site. AMAZING!!!

This is my niece, Hollie with Ty Pennington (sp?) from Extreme Makeover. My sister Cyndie is on the construction team that is doing one of the makeover homes for a policeman wounded in action, as she works for the construction company that is doing the project (Singleton Construction). Hollie sang Happy Birthday to Ty over the P.A. system yesterday as they opened the project to be started for the family. HOW EXCITING!!!! This kind of giving is a great thing for people to do! Makes my heart warm to know my little sister is involved. Way to go, Cyndie ... along with those hundreds of other people you've coerced into helping! Blessings to all of you!!!!!

Paul & I are staying busy, of course. He's been reffing almost every afternoon .... usually Fridays are off. I've added some evening classes to my schedule at Crossnore, so I'm getting some more exercise and having lots more fun giggling with the kids. Last night I had a bunch of under 12 year olds. What a ball of energy ... surely they could power a city the size of Manhattan! It was super fun ... and then I taught the teen girls who are all so enthusiastic about learning. Such a treat!

Paul will start working in the trees the end of this month! It was only 24 degrees when we got up this morning, so we're busy trying to organize warm clothes and such. When I say brrrrr, I mean cold! He'll be driving tractors, I hope, so we can save his knees as much as possible. The cold hurts the bones up here...old bones that is!

Do hope all of you are well.

Happy Trails!

Paul & Cheri

10 years

The Adventure continues . . . gratefully!!!!

Life is good.

P&C

OKTOBERFEST, Sugar Mountain, NC

Ruthie came and took a photo of us on a very rainy, cold morning. Brave of her to get out in the mess. Braver yet were we ... staying out in it for the day!!!!!

Our biz ... Clay for all the clay work that Shannon does, zaics for the mosaic work I try to do. We just stuck them together and came up with that! Clever women that we are ..... haha!

This was our very colorful booth. A friend of ours, Gaye Meade makes purses so we displayed some of her things as well. It was fun on Sunday because the sun came out! YEAH!!!

We had a visitor in a bat hat all the way from Atlanta ... and although that looks like Crocodile Dundee, it's really Paul with Christian. A busy day ... Christian tried to play on the slides and bouncy toys, but it was so cold even he had to go home, get a hot bath and sit by the fire! Nothing like October in the mountains for unpredictable life. It's going to snow this weekend, just in time for the Wooly Worm Festival. SOSOSOSO glad we aren't going to be vendors in that one!

Brandy (l) and Shannon messing around. Brandy is the message therapist who had the booth next to us. We all had a wonderful weekend ... perfect neighbors! Brandy sells some amazing bath soaps and herbs for bath therapies that she hand makes. Very talented lady. Will post her website as soon as I find her card!

This is one of Shannon's hand sculpted mushrooms for plants. Her stuff always has such a fabulous personality of their very own. $20 if you're interested.

Some hand sculpted clay faces by Shannon Fannon. '09 She has some absolutely amazing talent. Again, $20 if you're interested.

Our booth! Day one

These two are absolute trouble together .... Frick and Frack!

This is a mirror I did for Jen and family ... still has to have the cross put in the top center and it'll be finished at long last.

Beautiful Jen & precious Christian. We were calling Christian "Joseph and the coat of many colors" ... but we certainly didn't have to look too hard for him!

Smilin' Shannon - Booth day two

Bat boy and his mom :-)

Gotta entertain ourselves somehow!
We had a great weekend!

Meanwhile,

Happy Birthday to Janet & Craig (Paul's twin sister & brother)

Happy FIRST wedding anniversary to Charles & Sabrina (and hopes for MANY more)

Happy Birthday to Meghan!! 22 years old ...

Hope all y'all had a wonderful celebratory day and your hopes, dreams and wishes come true.

And we'll try to do better at getting these wishes out BEFORE things happen instead of after. Life comes at you fast, as they say!

Enjoy!

Paul & Cheri

Real party pictures

The BIRTHDAY Boy ... Happy 48th Paul!

Welcome to our October celebration! Paul has a friend who has a pumpkin patch and very generously let us shop!

Enough food for a house filled with friends .... nothing like a house filled with friends.

What a wonderful celebration!

Decorating with total concentration! Of course, it's his birthday trifle.

Jennie and Meghan Kress (the Kress sisters)

Jennie & Chad were married in April (remember?) and Meghan works at Fields and Company with me. She saves my life by working the weekends. Thanks for coming beautiful girls. They are as sweet as they look, beautiful inside and out.

Remember Charles?? He is the one who is always smiling!

The crowd! (l to r)

Beth, Gay Meade, Janine & Mark, Rick Meade, Crista & Sam

The trifle - never as pretty as Paul's mum's ... but the thought should count for something, don't you think??

Cheri and Shannon Fannon - Shannon is the clay artist ... the BRILLIANT clay artist!

She also celebrated her birthday on the 5th of October (yesterday). I am totally surrounded by Libras. GREAT!

Paul and Stacy Fannon (Shannon's husband) Stacy works for a Stone Company, cutting and polishing granite and such. He is also a guitarist and vocalist. Lots of talent in our group of friends. Stacy & Shannon have 2 sons, Jacob and Caleb. Caleb thinks Paul hung the moon, poor kid.

Beckye (Beckye's curl up & dye), Shannon & Paul. poor Beckye had to work so she & her husband Randy, and the Fannons came for the second shift! Kept the party moving, and helped keep the food being consumed! Very important. Had enough left for the army.

And Beckye's husband, Randy at the door looking at us wondering WHY it was taking so long to get outside! See Randy's short sleeves? The rest of us were bundled up and/or shivering. Randy's a local boy (like Charles) and they like short sleeves for a long time after I've put on a coat!

group hug as Mark & Janine must leave

Paul was having a very hard time posing for pictures ... but he was having great fun!

Just had to throw this one in. Ruthie did a GREAT job of capturing his facial expressions.

Janine, Cheri & Beth - power pack right here!

The reason Mark & Janine had to leave was because they had to catch a flight to New Orleans so they could get MARRIED Monday at 6:30 !!!!! Yeah .... Mr. and Mrs. Mark Cornell .... whoo hoo!

This is Crista and Sam being entertained (I hope) by a Paul story. Sam & Crista own Crista's Corner Store on Jonas Ridge Road. We love to go there for lunch after teaching the kids at Crossnore. Paul's been going there since he met Charles. It's a great stop off of the Parkway. I have no idea if I'm spelling that right ... sorry Crista...Sam, I think I've got yours right. ;-)

LAUGHTER! GGREATTTTTT! There was so much laughter that night, it was a wonderful sound.

The chiefs, cooks, maids, bottle washers, entertainment committee, etc.

Bruce Daniels and Paul discussing soccer or telling dirty jokes ... pick one. Bruce is a land surveyor in Newland (avery county, I guess!?). He is also one of the indoor soccer players in the winter.

The VERY tall and beautiful Kress sisters . Youth! How wonderful!

Paul with Charles and Sabrina, who will be celebrating their first wedding anniversary on October 11th (already!)

Paul & Mark --- Mark who keeps Paul honest. Thanks, Mark.

Paul is holding some very delicious chutney that Ruthie brought for us from Virginia. I regret we don't have a picture of Ruthie to present here. But I will get one.

And last, but no least, Artemis, who actually cruised through the party once or twice hoping for food ... or a mouse.

Thank you to all of our friends who helped us celebrate life.

Thanks to all of you who couldn't come, but who are in our celebration of life every day, whether near or far away.

Happy October!

Paul & Cheri

October Celebration

It's October! Time to celebrate! We LOVE October and the FALL season around here. It's right before it gets too cold to go outside! And for us, there is plenty to celebrate!!

A time for a celebration worthy of a photographer! Our dear friend Ruthie dedicated herself to photographing the event, so we will post beautiful photos soon. Paul's birthday was the 1st. His 3rd anniversary of living here in this beautiful house in NC was the 2nd, and our 10th wedding anniversary is the 16th. We have so many blessings to count and celebrate that we felt it the only choice to invite our friends and have a REAL celebration --- a life celebration. And we were right! It was a wonderfully fun and happy evening to celebrate ... and on a harvest moon! What perfect timing! (and as a side note, the couple of the right, Janine and Mark, are currently in New Orleans, scheduled to get married tomorrow evening! We are so excited for them ... best wishes you two!!!!)

Beth, the amazingly talented bungalow dweller, was on flower arranging, food presentation, and hand holding (mine, of course). She was awesome, unbelievably so. I wouldn't have made it through all the hoopla without her. Thanks Beth!!!!! Photos to follow - compliments of Ruthie! Check out Ruthie's website ... she's an incredible artist. (ruthiewindsormann.com)

Paul was, of course, the "chocolate turkey" maker. Always so creative, his turkeys were party favors! I'm sure chocolate mice are coming soon ... it's almost Nutcracker season.

The food was amazing ... and copious. And in Beth's defense, Paul draped this table cloth on the table ... a little lop sided ... but beautiful, nevertheless!

These are Christian's sunflowers - and Beth's arranging. The miniature pumpkins were perfect - and much to our entertainment, they float! The wine was plentiful ... and delicious!

Thanks for being in our celebration! What a wonderful world.

Cheers!

Paul & Cheri