Fall is here...

 

Fall is...

~sweaters

~hot chocolate

~snuggling under the blanket watching movies

~beautiful colors on the trees

~driving just for the fun of taking fall pictures

~warming up the rice bag for my cold toes

~school finals

MOM Project

The first weekend of October Matt got to go to Grundy for the Mission of Mercy Project. He said it was in the middle of nowhere.  About 50 people from VCU drove six hours and set up a makeshift dental clinic in the cafeteria of a school. During the two days they did free dental work for over 500 people. Matt said he had never seen people so grateful to have their teeth pulled - such a different lifestyle. One person even said he was almost to his third set of teeth -- baby, adult, dentures. It's crazy that in America we still have people that don't get the dental care they need. Matt enjoyed it so much that he is already scheduled to go on another MOM project this weekend.

(These pictures are Brian's - thanks Brian!)  

Museum Day!

Back on September 27th we went with Brian and Kimberly up to Fredericksburg to the home of Mary Washington (mother of George Washington). It was the Smithsonian Museum Day so we got in free! It is a cute house in the cutest neighborhood. All the houses were well kept with georgous flower gardens. We were loving the warm fall day. There were interesting facts told to us during the tour - like the fact that the Washington family wanted to show off their wealth by having closets. Back then closets were taxed the same as a room if you could stand in it; so their house had 2 closets. They also had expensive green paint throughout their house. It was expensive because each color, blue and yellow, were taxed separately. And then they had to pay a master painter to come mix the colors and paint the house. Oh what it would be like to have money like the Washington's :)

The house had a beautiful flower garden in the back where we saw our first cotton plant. That was really cool. We also tasted the figs off the tree.

Later we enjoyed yummy IKEA meatballs and went shopping at the Potomac Mills Mall.

On our drive home we were hit with a big rainstorm. It was coming down so fast that the wipers didn't help at all. Everyone was driving really slow with their emergency lights on. After about 20 minutes we were out of the storm and into sunny weather. It was crazy how fast the rain came and went. We were all glad that Matt drove safely through it.

We'll Miss You, Grandad!

Our beloved Grandad passed away this morning. These are a few things we will miss about him

* lots of historical facts that started out as ... Do you know what happened on this day in the year ...?

* his love of the 10 o'clock news and the Utah Jazz

* hugs and kisses on the cheek whenever we parted

* being called "rough-neck"

* his smile

* Horsefeathers!

* hearing him honk from the car when Grandma has done too much chatting

* his cane always close-by

and many more things than we could ever type or put into words. It's hard to see him go, but we know he's in the right place now.