success

Its a long one...lots to catch up on.

The party was offically a success. And offically over.

A hearty thank you to everyone who helped put it together...in NO particular order of importance.

Mom - thanks for finishing your endless list of little jobs that made the house look wonderful. Your mulch disappearing act was amazing.

Dad - thanks for making Country's appear in our driveway. I think a little bit of heaven came down when I looked outside to the truck at the house. My beautiful tables on the porch were perfect.

Ms. Denise - the cakes were wonderful. Everyone raved. Thank you for taking the time to make something so sweet (literally!) for our celebration...

Chad - you did more yardwork than you should have had to. And everthing else I asked of you. And smiled during the whole party. I know how you just LOVE parties...just think, we don't have to have another one until Thanksgiving when our house has been nominated to host.

Sis - you cooked and made us all full and happy. thanks for helping clean and jumping in when I got stressed.

Frannie - you did more housework than any guest should ever have to. The scrubbed porch looked fabulous because of you. I'm grateful.

Jess - You made ME look good. I got tons of compliments on the super straight hair and gave you all the credit. But then, you always make me look good just by being my friend.

And thank you to everyone who came to help us celebrate. It was wonderful to see people that we had not seen in a while and meet new people as well. Over all, it was worth all the work but I was happy to fall into bed when it was over.

Chad and I decided that we needed some time to ourselves after the party so we left Sunday afternoon to spend a few days hiking on the Pine Mountain Trail.

We did the whole thing last summer (all 23 miles!) so we decided to just hike a shorter loop trail over a couple of days. It was, in total, under seven miles but we couldn't have asked for better weather for the trail. Beautiful, sunny, cool...perfect fall days.

It was Gwendolen's first hiking trip too...I think she enjoyed it.

Other than the pack of coyotes that howled in the middle of the night and completely freaked me out, it was a perfect trip (ok, minus the twisted ankle about half a mile from the end but it wasn't worth stopping at that point!).

His first official day at work is tomorrow. I will try to get up and see him off but it will be early! I plan on getting a lot of stuff done tomorrow...clean out car, do laundry (new sheets and towels!!), write thank you notes (easy and fun job because I am so truly thankful...and the cards are so cute!). Can't wait to see how his day went...good luck my Chad. Have fun in the real world.