Birds in action

I was surprised to see how close this bird came to the camera for our doorbell. Kind of creepy. Appropriate for Halloween.

I came home from a walk and found a cardinal sitting on the railing. Its partner was in the yard.

Trunk-or-Treat

Here we are - dressed as party animals for the church's annual Trunk-or-Treat. We didn't wear the masks for long. It was really hard to see out of them. We had a warmer day than last year and lots of kids came theough but we still over-bought candy.

Our decorated trunk. We also brought our speaker and played Halloween music for everyone.

Afterwards we went to Goldyburgers for cheese balls and jalapeno poppers ... and to watch the Bears lose to the Cowboys.

I had Andy take a picture of the altar after worship. People came up to light candles in memory of their friends and family. Pretty.

Fancy donut day

Andy slept a couple of hours last night but not before he made the chocolate- and apple-cinnamon frostings for this morning's end-of-the-year special donuts.

This might be why they taste so good.

Andy was the first-shift captain. I was there at 5:30 a.m. to help my friend, L, frost the donuts. Am I even doing this right?

Well they look delicious! A few more pictures:

Happy fryers.

J is always smiling.

Andy's work partner, R, showed up to help. He likes doing it.

Busy, busy.

Our pastor was selling donuts. The line of customers was long!

My mistakes. Can't sell them but they taste good.

House concert

Yes, we pick put wine based on the pretty label and since our friend, L, loves dogs we thought this would be an appropriate bottle to bring to her house concert.

She even feeds us!

Tonight's concert was Amy Speace. We left early because Andy has to make frosting for tomorrow's donuts.

Wright puzzle

This one took a long time but B didn't help much (boo!). I even got to put the last piece in, for a change. Funny that I bought this and didn't realize we put the same puzzle together when the kids were on spring break in 2012. This one had gold pieces though and the other one didn't. I think it was easier to put together the first time but perhaps I had more help, even from B's friend, IB.

Frosting supplies purchased

My house is going to smell like chocolate Saturday morning! It's the last donut day and Andy will be making frosting. That's $166 worth of ingredients. This year, our friend L is making some chocolate frosting so Andy doesn't have to cook it all. We'll drop off the supplies she needs tonight.

Group cropping photo

The Creative Memories consultant who set up last weekend's crop emailed everyone the group photo. I'm in the second row holding the banner. Cindy is on the left, standing in the third row. Our tablemates Darla and Alice skipped out on the photo ... again.

Mismarked?

I found this house and Christmas tree candle set at Goodwill the other day, marked $2.99 but half off. I asked the cashier if that was right because it seemed way to low. She said she figured it was right and sold it to me.

I found it listed on ebay for almost $65. I told E that makes me not want to light them. She said, eh, go ahead and use them.

Cute. The two houses on the right are the same; one is turned to the side.

Rainy day

The view from Andy's office on this rainy day. Usually you can see more buildings.

It is OP

Combining your politics with your holidays. Made me chuckle.

Back home

Started the day with a beautiful sunrise as I was leaving Cindy's house and driving toward Litchfield. I don't have a good view of sunrises at home.

I got home around noon. I noticed the pretty fall colors from our front door when I got the mail.

Andy grilled steaks since it was warm out.

We had a fire but it was really windy.

On the West Coast

D went to Champaign this weekend to hang out with friends so E was on double-dog duty.

E said this was Spud after a 50-minute walk. Looks like he wants to walk some more.

E found time toput this skiing-themed quilt block together ...

and made a scarf for Azula.

She even took Spud to a self-wash bath. He's all clean!

Cropping last day

More surprises from the consultant at our cropping table this morning.

I completed 30 single pages over the weekend. I'm now done through the Disney family trip we took in January when we dropped L off for the College Program.

Cindy showing off the page she created (with artistic direction from me and Darla) about a mustard museum she visited in Wisconsin.

My scrapbooking girls.

Cindy and I left around noon, did a little shopping and got Happy Meals at McDonald's for lunch. We were hoping to get different buckets, but we both got ghosts.

These new Route 66 signs are so cool. This one is in Hamel, where my cousins lived geowing ip. We also saw ne 8n Collins ille a d Cindy said there's one in Litchfield and Carlinville (and probably others). Couldn't resist stopping to get some pictures.

There were scuff marks inside the numbers so we weren't the first ones to climb inside for pictures.

Across the road is the restaurant where my aunt worked for years. It's now called Weezy's and apparently gets a lot of business from bikers traveling Route 66.

This was the sign on the gas station in Benld. Pretty funny.

This was everything (I think) that Cindy bought. We were joking that her car looked like we had gone Black Friday shopping.

We went to Litchfield to do just a little more shopping. The sunset was beautiful.

This was the sky driving back to Gillespie where we picked up a pepperoni and mushroom (!) pizza from Casey's for dinner.

Cropping Day 2

When we got to our seats this morning there were more treats from the consultant who organized the crop. It's kind of like Christmas.

Hotel breakfast was much better than last night's dinner.

My table doing some serious scrapping.

Cindy and I did a little shopping and I bought this Christmas light at Menard's. It was last one of its kind they had in stock so I sort of had to buy it.

We enjoyed lunch at the Chicken Salad Chick last year so went back today.

Cindy doing the Disney trip she took with L in 2021.

The hotel's dinner was pulled pork sliders. We all agreed that the mac and cheese was really good. Everything was better than yesterday's offerings.

I did finish Christmas 2020 ...

and B's graduation from U of I. By the end of the day I got through October 2021. Tomorrow I'll start on Thanksgiving.