Hello Friends & Family,
I hope this finds you all well. I am having a hard time believing that we are already in December! The last month really flew by. Here are a few pictures!
In the beginning of November, Abba drove down to Florida with Ima, Ruthie and Sam to help my grandmother move from one house to another. We got a text from my father with a picture of his feet in the ocean ... letting us know they were working hard on moving Ma :)
While they were in Florida, us girls had to do some shopping and we also decided to go out to eat for Hannah's birthday.
We went to a Mexican restaurant (our family loves Mexican food)!
One day I went out with Lydia to the garden to dig up our sweet potatoes. We were totally shocked at the size of the potatoes! We had never gotten anything like that in the past, actually we normally do not have very much success with potatoes. We started shouting and Abigail came out to join the fun!
These are just some of the potatoes we got.
The trees were so beautiful once they started to turn.
Abigail got these next few pictures.
Abba, Ima and the children got home on an Erev Shabbat and the following Sunday we all went to Pall Mall. Have you ever heard of Sergeant Alvin C. York? There is a book and a movie (called Sergeant York) about him. Alvin was one of the most decorated American soldiers in World War I. Anyways, Pall Mall is where Alvin was born and raised, so we went to visit there
This was Alvin and his wife, Gracie's, home and farm.
We toured their house. The bed below was Gracie's.
Alvin was bedridden the last 10 years of his life and he spent them in this bed.
This was their kitchen.
When we were at the house, I did not see this display, but when I saw the picture Hannah took, I realized it is the same bowl and cups my grandmother has!
Going upstairs to see the bed-rooms.
The rooms were cute and old fashioned!
All the furniture was the original furniture that the York family had in their home.
What do you think of the old type writer and the Webster's Dictionary? :)
Reading the signs.
After touring the house, we walked across a field, through the woods and over a river to see the church that Alvin attended and the graveyard where he was buried.
Some of the family REALLY love swinging bridges ...
...and they put a lot of trust in them too!
The river was really pretty.
Alvin and Gracie's graves.
I like this big ol' tree in the graveyard.
See the rock ledges? There were so many around there.
We walked back the same way that we had come.
This anti-aircraft tank stands as a monument near the York's house.
You know ... our family did something pretty amazing at the end of October! For 18 years we have only had different red or burgundy vans for family vehicles. My mother was tired of driving "a box down the highway":) ... so at the end of October we got a Suburban! It was quite the transition but we are enjoying it! Here is Abba in our "Burban".
We drove over to York's Gristmill and looked around there for awhile.
Sadly the wheel was taken out :( When I was a little girl we lived near a gristmill that was actually still in operation ... I barely remember it, but I remember that it was really neat!
Our Lovely Lydia.
Us children!
"Please don't jump!!!"
I like this one better:)
Lydia and I sat down on the edge and T. came up behind for a picture!
Abigail.
The gals!
Haha ... I guess you know we were in Tennessee:) BUT ... we weren't that far from the Ken-tuck border!
The view of the York's house from the Grsitmill.
Thanksgiving week our family was blessed to be able to take a 2,500 mile dog delivery trip, as well as visit with our grandmother and have Thanksgiving with Ima's family. On our way up to Chicago the day we left, we saw SO many vehicles with deer on the back like the one pictured below. It was the beginning of the hunting season and many people had been successful! We were a little sad we did not have one on the back of our vehicle has well ... but I don't know how good that would have looked driving through all the cities we went through:)
After going to Chicago, we went to Toledo and spent the night there. The following day we went to the Washington D.C. area and after dropping off two puppies there, we headed to our favorite Chinese restaurant. While waiting for the food, we noticed a commotion behind and there were four wheelers and other such things going down the road, going through red lights and stopping the traffic. A police officer was soon on their tail. We realized they were protesters because the decision had just been released by the grand jury regarding police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson Missouri . After we got our food, we headed to our grandmother's house.
The following morning Abba, Hannah and I went to CT to deliver puppies. It was a nice day trip and we enjoyed meeting the people who met us for their puppies. On Thursday we had a nice Thanksgiving meal with all of Ima's family except for one of her sisters and family that were not able to make it. And, on the following morning we left to travel home.
Virginia was dressed in snow which made its winter bareness beautiful!
We had a huge praise report on our way home. We were driving down Interstate 81 through Virginia when all of the sudden someone several cars in front of us slammed on their brakes. We went from 70 to 0 in seconds ... and in those split seconds we watched the vehicles in front of us swerve, trying not to hit anyone else. Abba was able to bring us to a stop without ramming anyone else (although it was really close), but then we sat a few seconds waiting for someone to rear-end us ... but it did not happen! The vehicles behind us had been able to skillfully mange to stop or to swerve to miss others ... one lady even drove up in the small shoulder room between us and the guardrail just so she didn't hit us! It all happened so fast, but everyone was okay and we were really praising YHWH that He protected everyone. It could have easily been an ugly interstate pile up.
We watched a beautiful sunset as we drove west.
The sky was amazing as the sun went down. Tommy got this picture when we stopped to fill up with gas.
Okay, that is all for now! Shabbat Shalom.
