Merry Christmas?????

While sitting around the kitchen table with Mark and Brenda, Bill and Betty enjoying some coffee with a wee bit of Irish cream and hot fudge sundae cake we heard that awful sound of screeechhh, thuddd...bammmmmm. Accident in our peaceful neighborhood on Cash Drive. As we went outside and saw many cars on the side of the road, one pushed into the trees across the road from our home, another sitting in Ronda's yard, and down the road in front of the Kolsto house a turned over truck. One person was pulled from the truck with cuts & undetermined injuries, his passenger got out and ran away while beer bottles rolled out from the vehicle. No other persons were involved, just parked cars of people visiting their families for the holidays. Brenda and I handed out water to the emergency team and TJ calmed neighbors.

So how was your Christmas??

Quiet Times

This time of year when most people are running around shopping, going to parties, traveling to see family and friends and decorating their homes and abodes, well we here at the Hill house kinda just sit back and move into a slower than normal pace. We don't celebrate the "traditional" way and this is definitely NOT a stressful time of year for us. We'll share a meal with M&B then who knows what else will fill the day. Go see a movie, watch a DVD, play some WII, or maybe take a walk, I dunno. But I do look forward to another year to gain some wisdom and also that the days are getting longer so I can "play" in the yard again. Don't get me wrong I LOVE winter, but here in NC they don't have a real winter. I love the snow and cold weather and miss it bunches. The best time of my life was when we lived on the island of Adak in the Aleutian chain. 11 months of snow and cold, and then there was August. There aren't to many places that snow on the 4th of July.

So to all that past through here.

Merry Christmas

Day of thanks

This year was different for us, we stayed home. This years menu was Naomi's curry chicken, brown & white rice, cauliflower, broccoli, green peas, avocado, deviled eggs & cheese. For desert key lime cup cakes and 1 point pumpkin pie. You know, the traditional Thanksgiving day meal.









We ate, we visited, we relaxed then headed over to M&B's home for some WII. It was a good day, it was a thankful day.

Japanese invasion

The return of Naomi and friend Kana.

Of course the evening was spent with s'mores, hot cider, hot cocoa & good friends. M & B and neighbor Betty joined us for the evening. Kana was leaving the next day to spend Thanksgiving break in Ohio while Naomi will be with us for the week.

We had planned to go camping over the 4 day weekend but decided to stay home once we saw the forcast. We may do some day trips instead, I love my camping time but I also love my comforts such as warmth and dryness. I think we'll wait til spring.

We did do alittle walkin' on Sunday after church which was nice. A few deer, old coon hound, crunchy leaves, crisp air and loved ones. Don't get much better.

Snow day????

woke up this morning, (prayer of thanks) turned on the tv to see what is goin' on around our town and they said schools are on a 2 hour delay because of snow...............LOLOLOL, ohhh they crack me up

No ringworm, YEAHHHHHHHHH

No ringworm but still not sure what's going on with Oliver, we'll just keep on spot treating with sulfur, give the meds and see what happens in a couple of weeks. Otherwise not much going on around here. TJ's work is steady at this point and the company I work for is not doing so well. There are going to be some cuts just don't know what or who at this point. I'm not worried about it because I have a promise that all my needs will be taken care of. My LORD rocks!!!

Another fun filled weekend!!

For the past week we have vacuumed the floors and furniture EVERY day, wiped down with bleach cleaner EVERY day, washed our bedding and the cats bedding EVERY day, because we wanna have the cleanest house in Winston Salem? I don't think so. So why? Oliver may have ringworm........wanna strike fear down to the inner most being of cat owners, say ringworm. All the cats are on meds and everyone got a bath this weekend, oh joy!! I should have a results from his culture Nov 17th. More to follow.

Morrow Mt State Park NC

We took a day trip and headed down to Morrow Mt in Albermarle NC. The weather was perfect for hiking, not to many folks early in the day and the scenery was.........nice. We saw several herons at the bottom of Falls dam, came across an area I refer to as "Anole Station" (lizards everywhere), squirrels lookin' for nuts and lady bugs in huge colonies at the top of the mt. All in all it was a great time and we will definitely return for camping. Hopefully the middle of this month.

Blue Ridge Parkway

We set out in the a.m. to see the leaves changing up in the mountains on the parkway, but first we headed to New River State Park to check it out. We walked a short trail and came across several turkey hens that did not appreciate us being in their territory and then we headed down where the camp sites are. They were nice sites for pack in camping only but across the narrow river is a working cabbage farm. So if you don't mind listening to workers hollerin' back and forth, go for it, but not for us. We then moved on down the parkway to Julian Price campground, our neighbors recommend this place and said it's great for kayakin'. The park closes Nov thru April, but it does have some amazing camp sites, and nice bathrooms, that's always a plus. We may check them out next year. We then ended up in Blowing Rock and the place was packed with more people than I wanted to be around. We saw a couple, late 50's to early 60's walkin' down the street pushing a "baby buggy", but the baby was a well groomed, bow wearin' Lassawhatever dog!!! Man I wish I could of taken a picture of that but I don't think Mommy and Daddy would have appreciated it because I would have lost it and fell to the ground rolling in tears of laughter. So we ate some food, got some fudge and headed home.
It was a long day, but a good one.....................................yes, it was nice.

...............into the swamp we go

We spent the past few days camping at Merchants Millpond State Park in NC. It was a great 5 days away with most of the days having nice weather. We did have 12 hours of rain but that's okay, they really needed it. We will definelty go back to this place again but in the spring when it's not hunting season. Our neighbors Bill & Betty met up w/us and camped two nights, they were coming from two weeks of beach camping. The swamp was amazing

Did I mention it took 5 hours to paddle thru the pond to get to the swamp on the other side, then the next day we walked the Lassiter trail 6+ miles.

http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/memi/main.php

Oktober what??

On October 11th several of our friends joined us to sample beers (root & barley) eat brats and lots of other foods. Hangin' out with this group was something we needed and it was just an all round fantastic day & evening for us. This would have been the perfect day if the Kolsto's, Hohenadel's and Gordon's were there, but then maybe another day.

Several other photos can be seen on our flickr page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54868272@N00/

In memory of Sydney 6-10-99 to 10-08-08

The past two weeks have been a struggle for us here at the Hill house. After several tests and observation we had no choice but to send Syd to chew the grass blades along side the angels. Yes I believe Syd and all animals have an eternity, they were also created by Yeshua.

Here are some of my favorite pics....Sydney.

He was found by Harriette and it was love at first sight.

One of his favorite toys and he loved watching the birds in the front yard.

He made friends with just about anyone or anything.

and he loved being outside.

Just about the best cat ever!!! He will be missed by many.......furry and non-furry.

Simple??

We see these everywhere and don't think twice about knocking it down. I know I do, I hate spiders. But I saw this off the back deck and it kinda amazed me at the detail and constuction of it. Did you know that the straight lines are not sticky and that is where the spider places it's legs and the lines that make a circle are? How simple is that. Creation rocks!!!!

Fuzzy Smiles

What a cool service - Build-A-Bear then deliver them to a children's hospital. We started attending a corporate group of people who worship our Savior Yahweh, most people know him as Jesus, but anyway. Their September Service is Build-A-Bear and then they are delivered to Brenner's Children Hospital. I just thought this was such a cool service and they have a different service each month. They focus on the outwardness of the "church" not themselves, we like this.

Baden Lake

By 6 pm the work week had melted away.....................

TJ and I really needed a weekend away and it was nice to spend it with Chris and Laura Friday thru Saturday afternoon. Just hangin by the fire, on the lake with yaks and the guys at the shooting range. On Sunday TJ and I went walking on trails and by the lake. These are the times that make NC nice. Maybe we'll stay for awhile.

Correction for below post

Not velvet ant but spider wasp, still creepy though.

nothin' new

Not much going on around the Hill house, we've been waiting for the hot to leave and the nice to arrive which it's going to this week, soooooooooooooo we're headed down to Badin Lake with yaks in tow for a nice weekend with Chris and Laura. There's nothing like pop tarts cooked over an open fire.

The pic is a velvet ant male w/his lunch. I know it's creepy but these guys, the velvet ant amaze me. This type is call a cow killer, they say it's sting is so painful it will kill a cow, the female is wingless, bright red and fuzzy. I've only seen her once but I hope to get a pic of her also.

Labor Day on the river

TJ's parents have property on the New River by Draper VA so we took advantage of the free camping and headed up with the Jeep packed, and camper and kayaks in tow. Once the camper was set and kayaks unloaded we headed up the mountain trail with the jeep just to see what's up there. Not much, just lots of trees and some rocks. Then we headed to the river with yaks in tow. By that I mean we had to carry them 150 yards to the river (and back). It doesn't sound like much but after trying to paddle upriver, over the intense torrent of raging river water, trying not to dump the yak (had our camera in a zip lock baggy), it was a struggle for these worn out ol' arms. The best part about camping on the river..........living in the same clothes for 3 days..........nice. The best part about this trip was witnessing a river baptism.........priceless.

Next Level

This is Momma Kitty.

She now lets me pet her and seems to really enjoy human company.

This is what she brought me this morning.

I forgot what it was like to have an

outside kitty that likes you.

Nice.

Home Again

They say you can never go back but for a short time I did and it was very good. We spent 4 days in Wisconsin with family and comfort food along side one of my favorite places in the world, on the shores of Lake Winnebago. We also went to a free corn roast which is not uncommon in the rural areas. We had a great time.

Birthday Party Time!!!

On July 26th Grace turned 5 and we were part of this celebration. It involved watching Kung Fu Panda, Eric's amazing cooking of Kung Pow Chicken (I think that's what it was but it doesn't matter what it's called it was amazing) green beans w/garlic, mmmmm and for the kids he made hot dogs and chicken nuggets. Of course there were appetizers before hand and to top it off was this panda cake that was chocolate pound cake and the frosting was not killer sweet either, this also got an amazing rating. We had such a good time hanging with friends, watching a great movie and stuffing our faces with yum.
Some days life is really good in NC.

www.snipessweets.com