Crispin' air and hot coffee in my cup!

This post is just a random one. I am enjoying my pumpkin spice coffee in my Cracker Barrel mug. I am babysitting Adi's daughter, London. So the girls are playing nicely in Sami's bedroom. A good time for me to sit here and do this. Our nights are pretty chilly now...in the upper 30s, and I love it! The days are in the 70s...so that lovely formula are making the trees turn their autumn splendor! This time of year brings me such happiness and relaxation. The BEST time out of the whole year...in my opinion :o)

Now I am going to get all mushy and sentimental...Jeff, my amazing husband, is just that...AMAZING. I love him so much, and still to this day, I thank our good Lord for him. All of his hard work is very appreciated, and I do realize, that without him, I too would be back in the working world. His sacrifice (working for the man) for our family, lets me be a stay at home mom to our children. We are very blessed. So there you all have it...my love for my Law-Dog!

Here it is...

This is why I have been working so hard, earning the money (thanks to having the good Lord blessing me, with things falling into place, the yard sale, selling the jams and some of my Christmas Cd's)...to buy us a new (to us) used dining room table. I found this on Craigslist and have been watching it for a long time hoping it would still be available after I had the yard sale; and it was. A major blessing too? The owner of the table dropped the price down just today! This table was for sale for originally $540. Today, she dropped it to $450. I offered her $400, she asked if I would meet her half way...so I accepted. I paid $425 for this BEAUTIFUL Artisan crafted harvest table. Made out of REAL wood (none of that particle or wood veneer crap); and iron crafted designs along the edges and on the legs of the table. It was built in Sedona. I am thrilled with it! We just picked it up this evening, after a dinner at the Cracker Barrel. It was a good thing we still have Dad and Mom Stafford with us, because we needed another vehicle to transfer the six high back chairs. Love it!

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY MR. KENT!!!!

 It is Kent's birthday. Another year for our little guy! SEVEN? Really? Seven? YES! Time flies by faster every year; and in the next couple weeks...we have Samantha's 5th birthday! He received a lot of great gifts from family, so thank you everybody. Jeff and I bought him his very first bike! He loves it! He is learning how to ride it (you can see him with the pictures). So cute, and what a good memory to capture. Kind of Kent's first step of independence, when he gets it all figured out for himself...wow! So far today we let Kent open his birthday presents; and Samantha got to open hers from Grandpa Bob and Grandma Gayle; and Uncle Mark and Aunt Paula. So as you can see with the pictures, she got some cute things! Then it was time for lunch at McDonald's! That was where Kent wanted to eat...so that is where we went. After lunch, we took a nice drive home, through our forests and Garland Prairie. We are currently home, with the steam engine steamed up, relaxing, and tonight we will have dinner and some birthday cake!

Now lets talk about yesterday's yard sale! I only took two pictures of two areas of the yard sale (there was so much more than what you see in those pictures; but those were the cutest "nooks"). We have had Dad and Mom Stafford here for a few days, and they helped out so much for my yard sale. God bless them, they are great supporters with everything.

 It was a complete success! We met so many of our neighbors, and others throughout the Parks community. Jeff and his Dad gave train rides to so many people (that was a huge highlight)! Everybody loved it! I had hand painted signs to draw the crowds in, and Dad built heavy duty wood stands for my signs (very professional, and we got tons of compliments on them)! The homemade jams and pumpkin butter was also a success...sold $120 worth!! I sold five of my Christmas Cd's (and that is not bad, for having them at a yard sale in September). My friend, Adi and her family had some of their stuff here as well, to sell, and they did great with it too! It was a fun, busy day, talking and meeting with so many people; and spending it with our family and friends.

 

A Christmas Musical Mess!

The process of making my Christmas CDs...it gets kind of messy & clustered full of papers and such (as you can see); but the outcome...My 2011 Christmas CD! I am selling them for $10.00 each. Good times!

"Well Aren't Those Fancy Little Jars. I Do Say, How Much?"

I do declare, these jam jars took me all day to complete! And I mean ALL DAY. The detail is time consuming, ah, but the outcome is oh so lovely. So there they are; the homemade jams, preserves and pumpkin butter, all ready to be sold! Hallelujah!

Ad Posted on Craigslist Today!!!

Autumn Yard Sale!!! (Parks, AZ.)

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Date: 2011-09-19, 4:22PM MST
Reply to: mailto:sale-5gt6g-2607280149@craigslist.org?subject=Autumn%20Yard%20Sale!!!%20(Parks%2C%20AZ.)&body=%0A%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fflagstaff.craigslist.org%2Fgms%2F2607280149.html%0A ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

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Autumn Yard Sale!
Saturday, Sept. 24th. 8:00-4:00pm.
FREE HOT COFFEE &APPLE CIDER
Great items for sale.
Look for the signs on Saturday, to help find your way!
call for any questions regarding location : 928-310-6923

• Location: Parks, AZ.
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 2607280149

A 60 Degree Something Day.

 Once again, a Stafford outing on a crisp Saturday! Fall isn't official until this coming Friday, but boy, the temps today said otherwise. It was the perfect day. We took drives around the forests and prairies. Took little walks around...what we do best...enjoying what God has blessed us all with.

So a fire in September, is normal...right.

Yesterday Mom and Nana came up...to do some birthday shopping for the kids and have some lunch (yes, it was at the Cracker Barrel). It was a full day. Nana bought Samantha that cute little beanie on her head. The cutest kid ever! She was hopping down the aisle, all proud, like I have a lion on my head. Kent got out of school early, so we came back home to wait for the bus to drop him off, then he got to go with us to lunch and pick out a birthday toy at the Cracker Barrel. It is super cool. The firefly that lights up in the jar when tapped. He chose the blue light firefly. Later that day, when Mom and Nana went home, I had two cords of aspen wood delivered. Now we have four cords of wood for the winter. Yeah...so about that. It is September. Yesterday was the 15th of September and it has been so chilly here for days. Last night we finally had to start a fire in our wood burning stove! The first of the season. In September. It felt so great, though. To the bone warmth. Yep.

Jam, Jam, Me Oh My, I Love Jam!

Last night Adi came over, and we made lots and lots of jam and pumpkin butter! I didn't finish up until after midnight. I am trying to make a lot for the yard sale coming up (and for me and my family). I absolutely love doing this stuff! It brings joy :o) The jam still has to settle and thicken. That takes up to 48 hours. I will also be making labels, and making the jars look "cute." I will be doing that maybe this weekend. All good things! Jeff even got a sample of the peach preserves (still warm from the pot). He wanted more and more. So that means the jam has "Law-Dog's stamp of approval!" That's all we need ;o) Finally the last picture is just a random one I tossed in. You see, Curly loves to sit on my shoulders. I pick him up and hold him, and he crawls to my shoulders. He likes the view I guess. So this makes me think there is a cat underneath that fluffy white fur, posing as a little dog. Cute. Beyond cute.



Some of the supplies



Boil baby, boil!

Making the fantastic pumpkin butter!

Raspberry preserves

The peaches before I mashed them up!

The Adi...filling the jars up!

We have raspberry, pumpkin butter, strawberry & peach

Curly is actually a cat. He does this all the time!

Sometimes you feel like a toad. A horny toad.

We decided to take a hike, out to a part of Sycamore Canyon today. It has been great temperatures up here...seriously people, FALL TEMPS. We have had the biggest thunderstorms as well. Last night we received a great light show, with the loud rumbles of the thunder, rain and hail, It was awesome! Back to the hike...so I took some pictures of the journey. The kids and husband. Caught a glimpse of some yellow color on oak leaves...and we found a friend. Mr. Horny Toad. The cutest, ugliest creature. It asked for it's picture to be taken..so I complied. Doesn't he look captivating? I thought so as well. Any who, we took our hike at a good time, because the weather had other plans, and it changed fast! I took a picture of the sky on our way back from the hike. That is out in Garland Prairie Road. Absolutely breath taking out there, and so close by.