A Halloween "Treat"

Hayride and weiner roast at Paul's house

We arrived in LaClede, IL for the Birthday Party and weiner roast about 6:00. They sure know how to build a fire. An entire tree trunk was burning. We roasted weiners, marshmallows and enjoyed the fire. It was a nice cool autumn evening.
And then it was NIGHT!
When it got completely dark we all jumped on the haywagon and went for a wild ride through the woods, and up hills and over bridges. It was a beautiful starry night. The people on the hay wagon with us were a riot. We decided we should ride into Altamont and go to the McDonald's drive through and tell them we have 20 seperate orders, and then just order coffee.....of course, we didnt' do that, because we would have to ride down a main road, which actually wouldn't be a problem, since Altamont is a very small town, but we didn't know if the cops might coming driving after us.....so instead we listened to the many adventures Paul's wife and family have had through the years. We laughed so much our stomach hurt. It's a good thing Bill was holding onto me, because he hit a huge hole and my butt went flying off of the bale of straw....he's my hero....:-) We returned to the warm fire.



Ashley used to work for us at the ice cream shoppe, she was there too with her little girl, Jillian, and her husband, Jason. It was so good to see her again, I have known her since she was a little girl, funny how time flies. Anyway, it was a fun evening out in the cool October night and we enjoyed meeting some new friends and seeing some old ones too.

A day at the pumpkin patch

We went once again to Relleke Pumpkinfest in Pontoon Beach, IL. We ran into some old friends and enjoyed the day so much, as always. It was good to be back where we spent so many hours with our concession trailer, Wild Bill's Concessions. It's a place that holds many happy memories for us and when the weather starts to cool, and Fall is in the air, we get a longing to head to the pumpkin patch.

We stopped at a farmer's market and bought some apples, gourds, garlic and roasted peanuts. Then we stopped at Carlyle Lake and had some of the apples, and some pumpkin doughnuts we bought at the pumpkinfest. The lake was beautiful, the trees are starting to turn and even though there were a few sailboats, and a family was walking along the beach. It kind of had a feeling of lonliness, as winter will be here soon and the sun worshipers will have to wait until summer to swim in the warm waters and feed the gulls

A halloween greeting...

So, I just wanted to make a little Halloween greeting....after a few tries I came up with the first one, but then I thought I would be creative and record a few more....I never knew how much I sounded like Elvira...this is no hamming it up or anything....this is the way I express myself....somebody shoot me!.......:-)

So, have a laugh at my expense, I can take it...

The Phillips Clan goes on vacation

To see photos full screen hit that HD button....

Now Showing: "The Monster That Couldn't Read"...

Mom and I went to visit Shelley and Garret and the second part of our reason for going to Decatur was to also travel on up to Champaign, IL where my friend, John Everson, horror author, was doing a book signing at the Illini Union Bookstore on campus.

The day started out fine. We decide what we would have for supper, went to the store and bought all of the stuff. Then we went to Steak N Shake for some lunch. Garret fell asleep in the car, so we just got our food at the drive up and headed for Champaign. Once we got there, we had plenty of time before the book signing, so we stopped at a Burger King and got some food for Garret. He was too busy playing with some other kids that were there to eat, but we enjoyed watching them.

So far so good.

We asked a lady at Burger King where the Illini bookstore was and she gave us directions. We found it with no problem and got a good parking spot too, even though it was quite a walk for mom. We got to the store and found out it was the wrong one. We had to walk two more blocks and found the bookstore we were looking for. John Everson was in the 'Author's corner'. Garret was enjoying pulling all of the books off of the shelves, and we were putting them back as quickly as we could. He wanted to run because it was a big place, but we had to hang onto him....he was not happy! I guess he was not into the books for reading purposes that day........ Finally it was time for the reading by John of the first two chapters of his book "Covenant". Mom came in and sat by me and and Shelley sat in the back next to John's wife and their son, Shawn. Shawn was about the same age as Garret. In the end they played together some. However, Shelley had to leave and take Garret for a walk because he was being a little monster, throwing himself down on the floor and screaming, because he could not run around like a crazy little person. Finally, she had enough and plopped him into my lap. John was done reading by now and was taking questions. Garret smiled and waved at John who said he was cute and waved back at him....Finally I was able to have John sign a copy of his book for me, and we had our picture taken together. I had talked to him for a short time before the reading began, and he was very nice and a really great guy. Afterward he asked if we were going out to dinner, I would have loved to sat and talked to him for a while, but we had to head back to Shelley's. Cary was expecting us, he had been gone on a business trip for a couple of days...well, actually, he forgot we were going anywhere and called his mom before we got back and asked her "Where is my wife?"....:-) Anyway, back to the book store. There were some journalism students there doing a project for their class. Three of them interviewed me, since I was the only one there who had read any of John's books. The whole time I am manhandling Garret. He was insane. I don't know how many time he threw a hissy fit on the floor before we got out of there. Shelley went and got the car and picked us up in front of the bookstore. Even though Garret was being a little hellion, we had to laugh when we got in the car. He wanted out of his car seat, I told him he was not getting out until he was 25! Garret may be a monster for Halloween, a lovable monster, but a monster...lol.....We had lots of laughs despite everything, and got lost in Champaign trying to find our way out. We took the tour, so to speak. Finally, we got home, we all cooked dinner and made tarimasu for dessert. Marsha and Christine joined us. That polish sausage, kraut and fried taters was so yummy, but the tarimasu was wonderful. We all went to bed at 9:30.

Above are a couple of pictures of John reading from his book "Covenant" and one of us together with him holding my autographed book.

Alien Potatoe Peeler

I just thought this was an interesting concept in the computer generated art genre. It's my blog,so I can do what I want to....ha ha...

Aunt Barbie's Birthday

The Knight Family....not pictured, Stormy the dog, and the cat...:-)



Happy Birthday, Barb. It was great to visit with you and Milo, as always...I don't think I will be eating cake for quite a while....hee....well, at least a week..

Ingram's Log Cabin Village Craft Fair and Historical Festival

The log cabins at the village are there year round and have been there for many , many years. Originally, Erma Ingram collected the log cabins from around the country and had them all sent to the wooded land she owned north of Kinmundy, Illinois. There are 16 authentic cabins located at various locations throughout the wooded area. The crafters and food vendors come every year to sell their wares. In 2007 the historical society took part in the event. This made it even more interesting as all of the cabins were decorated for the period and all the members of the Historical society wore period clothing while telling of the history of each cabin. All of them had fires burning and they were cooking and doing other daily chores. The event was very intersting and the different musicians placed throughout the village added a wonderful "back-in-time" feeling. We enjoyed the day very much and highly recommend it.

Some short Videos from the Log Cabin Village Festival

Wine Down at the Orchard View Winery

Ducks outside of the winery. The peach trees are in the background.

The grape vineyards.
Some people "wine-ing down" on a Friday evening.



Bill with the owner, Brad Mezanak, trying some Mona Lisa peach wine....it was yummy......but..
The enterior of the large red barn, that once housed livestock, it is now beautifully decorated and has a wonderful atmosphere.



........but the Apple Starboard wine was our favorite. We took home a bottle. It is really a port wine, but the word port pertaining to wine is a copywritten term, so he named his wine starboard....get it? ....instead of port....those wine people are so clever.


Orchard View Winery webpage

New Paint....now that's entertainment!

Red Hat ladies do the Electric Slide

RED HAT LADIES FALL FLING

Today was our annual Fall Fling where Red hat ladies from all over Illinois meet to just have some fun. The theme was Victorian/southern belle, there were some fantastic costumes, as you can see.
We even had live music all day, from a very funny musical duo who's name escapes me now. However, they told us their next even was the National Outhouse festival...they were really good though and played old time 1920's and ball room music.

Blue Grass Festival, Salem, Ill

The Blue Grass Festival has been going on for years at Salem Illinos, in Bryan park. Here are a few photos from the event, along with some family and friends. One of Preston's friends, Jeff Griffey was among the musicians. He is third from the left in this picture.

A quick visit to Decatur

"I made it through Walmart and that's all I could take..."



I made a quick trip to Decatur to visit Shelley, Cary and Garret. We just relaxed and visited. I took some video of Garret, but since my camera is new, I need to convert it to a different file type and make it smaller so that I can post them here. He is such a ham.

I enjoyed seeing them all so much. Cary made some delicious lasagna and Shelley, Garret and I went to Walmart, where we bought things we didn't need. Garret fell asleep with his two new cars, one in each hand. It looks like he lost a shoe..

Shelley and I looked through paint chips and got online and she helped me decide on the colors I want to paint the front room....it's going to be very interesting....:-)

I came home the next afternoon in a terrible storm. I had to pull over three times because I couldn't see the road. Bill got home from working in Missouri about an hour after I did.

Visit with Kent (and Kim and Sylvia via Webcam)

Kent came home for Labor Day weekend. He built mom a great new computer, bought her a flat screen monitor and bunches of other goodies. She was so happy and is learning to use all of the new equipment and programs. Kent, you did a great job on it, and she just loves it.
We all met a mom's and went to Applebee's for supper. I am wearing new ear rings from my friend, Jewels. They are real garnets and she made them, just beautiful! (Not me, the ear rings)
Barb and my brother, Milo, waiting for their steaks!

Kent putting on that goofy grin....lol.
A really great picture of my pretty mom.

After dinner we visited for a while at mom's house and we talked to brother Kim and Sylvia on the webcam. This will be a new experience for mom for sure, but it will be fun too for her to be able to see her family in California, and Kentucky.

Thanks Kent for the camera card and the 'Sheila Stick'. I appreciate them so much and I know they will come in handy for transfering stuff to my ipod and to my many computers....and for taking lots of pictures.
Hugs

New Camera Woo-hoo

I finally got my new camera today. It's a Canon powershot SD1100IS. It's a tiny little camera, but takes wonderfully clear pictures. Above and below are a few, which have been reduced in size due to my crappy internet speed, but you get the idea..

Party at Henry's

Bill works with a guy named Henry R. and I have known him for years. He had a party tonight. It was so relaxing and fun. He had smoked a hog and the rest of us brought food and drink. It was a beautiful evening, no humidity, which is amazing and cool too. He lives out in the middle of no where south east of Iuka. He and his wife live in a cabin he built himself, along with her son. He has his own lake on the property. It is just a beautiful place. The smoked hog was very tender and delicious. There were lots of other home-made dishes, taco salad, sliced tomatoes, cucumber salad, mashed potatoes, green beans w/bacon and all of the other country food that we all love here in Illinois. We didn't really know anyone besides Henry, but as the evening wore on we ran across some people we hadn't seen in a very long time and we had a fun visit. The best part though, was, as the sun was setting Henry and his brother, and a third party, who are all members of the same rock band played and sang. It was a wonderful atmosphere with the tall trees, the sun fading and the cool evening breeze while we listened to them sing many of our favorite songs from Elvis, Tom Pettay, John Bon Jovi, Neil Young, Jim Croche, John Mellancamp and the list goes on. At one time the guests were waving their lighters in the air,like we were at a real concert, those who didn't have a lighter, were waving their lit-up cell phones... lol. Some people danced and we all sang along on the chorus during "Proud Mary". Others attending took their turn at the microphone, including one guy named Hoss, who sounded Cajun, and did a great job singing some old time country hymns and tunes, like: "I'll fly Away"...for a minute there I felt like I was in the movie "O brother where art thou?".....just loved it all. The singing continued into the night, while we all visited and drank a few beers (or Dr. Peppers). The fog came rolling in about 11;30, so we headed home. The fog was very thick, so it took us a while to get home. We had a wonderful time. I will post some pictures, but my camera is having problems (which is why I ordered a new one today).