Happy Birthday, Sara!

Hope your day is fun!

Peril

is the name of my cousin's first book.  She has been contracted to write a trilogy of Christian suspense novels.
Yesterday, she had a book signing at her church  and talked about how the book came about.  I guess when you have 3 kids, home school them and run them all over the place, there is time to sit and think about NASCAR,  religion and the secret service.
Several of my cousins were there also.

Suzie and me holding her new book.

Three of my other cousins were there.  From the left, Donna, me, Lori, Debbie and Suzie. Lori & Suzie are sisters and Donna & Debbie are sisters. 
We are planning a bigger cousins reunion after Christmas for the purpose of scanning pictures and trading some off to each other.

Happy Birthday, Harrison!

Happy Birthday Big 2 Harrison!  Hope you are having fun camping.

My can be sweet nephew, with beautiful curls sitting on his Daddy's lap -he really liked the circus.

Happy Birthday, Travis!

We are so glad you are our son-in-law and such a good husband and father!

Happy Birthday, Travis. 

A Perfect Day for a Yard Sale

When you have four kids, you have a lot a excess stuff that needs to go.  Also, when own 29 houses and people move out, they leave stuff behind, so all this stuff has to thrown away, given away or sold.  We use several ways to sell stuff.  Sometimes we swap, or use Craig's list, post on garage sale sites or the old fashioned and have a yard sale. Yard sales are much, much more than just a sale.  They are a time to work together, talk, hang out and meet people you normally wouldn't come into contact with in a normal work day.   It is also a time to play with the kids and get your husband to do errands he normally doesn't do.   The goal of the yard sale is to clear out stuff you do not need and make a little of the money back you spent on buying the stuff or in my case usually, to get rid of stuff in my garage left behind by renters. A huge plus is nice weather.  It was cool this morning at 6 am, but a sweat shirt and coffee took care of the problem.  As the day went on it grew warmer and we were able to shed our sweat shirts and enjoy the sun.

This is with about half of the "stuff" sold.

My nephew, just under 2, climbed up on a bike today and started riding it, just like that!

My sister and the kids playing. 

The Circus

I went to visit my sister.  She told me while I was driving that we were going to the circus.  Okay, so I haven't been to the circus in a very long time.  This wasn't a big three ring, but a one ring circus with animals acts, funny skits and jugglers. 

There were elephants,

camels and

tigers, oh my!

This is the Stephens/Sassmann family.  There is never a dull moment at their house, nor a quiet one!

Cherry Jelly

My friend, Nancy and her husband went to pick tart cherries earlier this summer from a friend's tree.  Nancy wanted to make cherry almond jelly with part of the cherries.  It turned out so gooooooooooood!

A sample of the jelly.

We ended up with 11 half pints.