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Add my thanks to your SIL, Candyce.....Service at home or service abroad is the greatest gift of all and I, too, am most grateful to all of those who give us all so much. And a great big welcome to your daughter and granddaughter.....let's make gardeners out of them!!! LOL

A heartfelt Thank You for your SIL here also. How great you're going to see your granbaby. What a great autumn you'll have!

Yes - the families of service people play a big role for us as well!

3gardeners-sorry no cats for me.
debilu-thanks will give it a try.
Candyce, what branch of the military is he in? my b-i-l works at the naval hospital in Jacksonville. Most of my family were in the navy.

It just poured here, now someone is mowing their lawn??? I thought you shouldn't mow wet grass?

It's been pouring here all evening - my mums are going to be flattened :-(

First time I'm reading (or skimming) through the thread. I've been really busy this past week. My SIL just went back to work after 3 months off for his cornea transplant. He's doing OK but they are trying to fit a contact on the eye that was not done. They did the worst eye this time (other eye after a year) so the eye that was not done was actually the dominant eye and that's the one that still tries to see. The eye that had the transplant now has good sight but he is in the process of training that eye to be dominant. They are having trouble fitting the contact as his cornea is cone shaped (reason for the blindness and the transplant). Ok , I'm rambling - I've been really busy cause I'm back to chasing an 18 month old fulltime cause Daddy 's not watching him anymore!! Candyce - I'm so happy for you. You will enjoy being with your grandchild.
The photo is of Colin running the lift chair (used it for my father when he was alive). I was doing dishes and heard the chair running and got this pic of him as he was reclining the chair. Eleanor

Eleanor: Colin is just too cute for words! Such a 'little man'!!

My SIL is a Marine, and I will show all of your messages of thanks to Ashleigh in a few moments. She and Audri both finally arrived here around noon yesterday, exhausted but happy. Now, Little Miss "M" and Audri are trying to work out the 'boundaries' as only two babies can!!

Good luck to your SIL Eleanor.

Today is the day for the great big Pumpkin Festival!!

In the past seventeen years, Keene, NH has held eight world records (Guiness) for having the most lighted jack-o-lanterns all at one time and all in one place. We got beat out last year by Boston. Hopefully this year, Boston is full of Red Sox fans and too busy to carve out their pumpkins.

Our latest world record was in 2003, with 23,952 lit jack-o-lanterns. What a sight!!

This photo comes from http://pumpkinfestival.org

Good luck, Candyce. I hope you reclaim the title.

The weather is perfect for it, for sure! But, that's one place I don't go near!! Can you imagine over 23,000 people crammed into one square mile?

Woodstock!

I missed that. My parents sheltered me too much.

Candyce that is awesome! I bet that when they are all lit you can see them from miles away. I'll be watching! Hee hee hee
Good Luck, hope you re-claim that title!!

This message was edited Oct 20, 2007 10:06 AM

Celeste .... If the glow of the jack-o-lanterns reaches YOU ... I'm running!!!!
All that flame will be just a bit close for comfort.

Aw...is halloween coming? Nice displace of pumpkins there, lovely!!

Me? I hide behind closed doors with the lights out at Halloween.....

Wow that is awesome. Enjoy it Candyce. Maybe Celeste can see it from that mountain that's for sale!

Candyce, Hope your SIL is going someplace safe and that you get unlimitted snuggling with your grandchild!

That would be cool to see in person. I know it's past your bedtime, but if you stay up get a pic of it.

Actually, my 84 year old Aunt drove there to see those pumpkins being lit. No need to go to the Mt. as she will surely snap a photo for me.

Candyce - nice pumpkin display, but I think we now need grandchildren pics from you!!!!! I wish your SIL well while he is away and your daughter and granddaughter are so lucky to have you (and you them)!! Eleanor

Candyce - I'm avoiding Keene today like the plague! In the years when we have gone to the pumpkin festival, I couldn't see much, because the crowds are so dense and I am so short, so what I saw were the backs or shoulders of all the people around me. We finally caught on that the best time to go is late Friday afternoon or early evening when the pumpkins are lighted but the crowds haven't arrived. It truly is an awesome thing to see all of the creative ways people carve the pumpkins. Some are true works of art.....very elaborate scenes, etc.. You can't find a restaurant to eat in for miles around on the day of the festival.........take my word for it. We also made the mistake one year of going into Keene with the plan that we would go in for the afternoon and then go out to eat somewhere. We drove and drove and many restaurants had "no more food" signs in their windows. We finally found one with some food left at 10:00 p.m. 45 miles away. At that point we were just coming up here for weekends, so we hadn't put any food at the house yet that weekend either.

Oh yes, Louise!! I know what you mean about the crowds and there being no food left in the restaurants in the Keene area. While it is a fantastic sight, and well worth the effort to go ... I don't because of all the people!! It's just way too much for me!!

I remember that the last year I went, it snowed. And my backside view (along with some from a few other people) made it onto the front page of the Keene Sentinel! I was mortified!! I think I last went to PumpkinFest when Ashleigh was still a little girl. I was so afraid that she'd either get stepped on, or that she would get picked up and carried away.

Now, listening on the radio is good enough. We all carve our pumpkins and get them delivered to the check-in points, though. So we do our part to add to the final tally. I heard that they were wanting to get 35,000 this year!!

Candyce - thanks for the pumpkin link - one of my students is from that neck of the woods and was going home to celebrate the pumpkins in Keene :-)

I concur with Dave47:

"Hope your SIL is going someplace safe and that you get unlimitted snuggling with your grandchild"

So far, SIL will remain safe. And, so far, DGD looks at me like ... 'who the HECK are you?' No cuddling yet. But, I expect that in a few days she and I will be cuddling up a storm. She's at that stage when strangers aren't her best friends. It's fun though, to see her, Audri (10 months), interact with Morgan (14 months). And they even play well together ... so far!

I'll see what I can do for photos tomorrow.

Candyce, that pumpkin pic is awesome, love to see it lit up.

Here's a photo of my two youngest grands, getting to know one another.
On the left is "Miss M", otherwise known as Morgan.
On the right is Miss Audri.
The photo was taken about a half hour after my daughter, Ashleigh, and Audri arrived on Friday. Since then, it's been a whole lot of fun around here!!!!

Oh Candyce - Morgan and Audri. Colin has the same book!! Don't you just love listening to it over and over and over again? " I hope the fun never ends!! " Eleanor
Oopps forgot to add "Good bye for now" !!!!!!

Yes, Eleanor! I LOVE that book. It's my favorite!! And, I can even do the Tigger laugh. The girls really enjoyed each other. That's Morgan's book and she was showing it to Audri, you know, making the pages gop back and forth and really messing up the sequence of things. But, within the hour they were both dancing to the songs!! I was having a field day!!!!

Beautiful children Candyce!! I think we had that book too.

i was helping a friend plant things in a disused backyard where she wants to make a garden today. i just posted some questionable vines on the ID forum, if any fellow NEer's want to take a look and see if they seem familiar...
thanks!

I don't recognize them but I'm sure someone on ID will quickly.

Candyce - I just realized I never finished my sentence!! Morgan and Audri are so cute!!! I think I looked back at your post to see how to spell Audri and saw the book and got all excited. Then forgot to finish my sentence!! You must be on cloud 9 having Audri staying with you!! You're on cloud 9 and I'm in la, la land!! Eleanor

there will be more to id.
but i gotta have dinner.
She has a lot of what she says are "violets" - they have round leaves, kinda cup shaped. Are there wild violets around here? And how bad are they? (Everything else in that yard seems to be something evil...) i don't think they're "johnny jump ups," (which i want - how come im never invaded by anything pretty?) the leaves look wrong.

Candyce - beautiful grandaughters, I bet you've had lots of hugs now!

yea Boston!

Go Rockies!! Sorry N. England people. The Patriots provide you guys with enough!

Games beat us again. Oh well. We're still the top 'real' forum.

If I'm rooting for anyone, it will be the Rockies - we people of the West have to stick together :-)

I like the Red Sox because I love New England. I also like Colorado, so the Rockies aren't a bad winner if that's the case. I've only been to Colorado twice.
I'm more of a beautiful sceneries' team fan rather than a baseball or football fan. It's the trips I've taken to those places that give me the fond memories. And watching those teams play bring back the memories.

(Blue Jays fan)

***blush***