Sunday

Well it was another nippy morning but warmed up to the middle 60's for the day with bright sunshine and blue skies. After our usual quiet times and a lite breakfast we got ready for worship at Cornerstone in Sparta. It was good to see all and we felt a little sad to think this would be our last visit with them before heading back to hot sunny Florida but we learned next Sunday will be their 7 th anniversary homecoming so we decided to stay until next Monday, providing the snow doesn't get too deep. Actually the weatherman is calling for snow flurries this next week with highs only in the low 30's. Our little gas wall mounted heater is keeping us snug and warm so far but not to sure about temps in the 20's.

We had a guest speaker who actually went to the Ukraine to help with the distribution of "shoebox" gifts to the children while spreading the gospel with Operation Christmas Child. Her story was very inspiring and unique. The worship music was awesome and the new singer, Natasha with the praise band has a fantastic voice. After the service we stopped by the library and dropped a couple books off then stopped at Lowes for a few goodies before heading back out to the cabin. Neighbor Gerald was gone back to Raleigh and our hill top looked barren now with most of the beautiful leaves gone. Winter is fast approaching although the afternoon sun was warm out of the wind. After a quick lunch of leftover bean soup for me and leftover chicken on homemade bread for Nancy we took off for our only hike of the day. We saw only Fred on his tractor scraping his driveway on top of the mountain, so we headed on back to take an extended golf cart ride. We headed up the back roads and out to the mailbox looking for our resident black bear. We saw lots of squirrels but that's about all.

I camped in front of the T.V. watching a little NFL for the next couple hours and it felt good to vegetate after a busy past couple days. We were heading over to the Dalton Ranch to eat and play Sequence later and what an evening it turned out to be. We managed to get in a couple games called "corn hole" which is becoming very popular everywhere.Bobby(our son)is very much into this game at his church's get together's as he is always talking about this game as well. Its much like horseshoes but bags filled with shelled corn are tossed 30 feet onto a raised box with a circular hole in the center. Its was a fun time as it was my first time to participate. Caleb and myself gave his dad(Andy) and p-paw(Gerald) a good match. The guys once again smacked down the gals in a close match of Sequence 4-3. That's 2 wins in a row for us guys(I believe that's a record) anyhow it was a great evening with Andy's smoked baby backs ribs, beer in the rear chicken, Kay's salad, Nancy's tater's and Mechelle's blackberry wine cake she won at an auction. What a feast and the company was even better. We will surely miss these good times and super friends until next Spring, actually the gals decided at the last minute they wanted to suffer a little more before next year and since we are now staying until next Monday that we would play again on Saturday night, such gluttons for punishment, oh well!!!

Nancy took a few pictures of their critters, etc before it was time to sit down for supper. LATER