My goodness. The weather here is either amazingly beautiful or incredibly awful! Today was the latter. From the moment we got up until we hit the sack (should be happening in the next hour or so) it has rained. And rained. And rained. I know they need it badly down here, but maybe if it was just spread around a little….
OK, enough whining!
Tomorrow is our last day of work here. Wow, I am always amazed at how quickly the time goes by. We’ve left our little guest house assignment, and have moved to the mail room. And that 11,000 piece mailing (watch your mailboxes, Toccoa Falls Alumni and friends!) is now well underway!
We’ll spend the rest of the week doing chores and packing up (hopefully things will be a little drier after tonight!). We’re heading out on Saturday and pointing Lizzie South! Our destination for Thanksgiving will be Amelia Island, FL, where we’ll be visiting with our friends the Sensings. Our third T-giving on the road, and our third with the Sensings! What a treat!

Back to pre-packing!

Sunday was a long day…..

But a very good one! In what seemed to be an effort to pack at several days into one, we headed to Atlanta (about 100 miles) early Sunday morning. (We being all eight of us in a Toccoa Falls College van, with Gary driving and me as the honorary tour guide!). Our first destination was to worship at First Baptist Church of Atlanta and sit under the preaching of Charles Stanley. Now, I’m not a huge mega-church fan, and having a camera on a track around the perimeter of the room is somewhat distracting, but I must admit it was a very friendly church, the preaching was excellent, and the service was a blessing. An unexpected bonus was the special music – two solos by Steve Green. Our group leader was right on the ball, and after the service arranged for us to have a group shot taken with Dr. Stanley. He was very gracious, and was actually taking quite a bit of time to greet any visitors who wanted to speak to him. It was well worth the drive!
From there we found a great little place for lunch – the Metro Diner. Yummm. Since we’ve been eating in the college cafeteria it quite a treat!
And then our destination for the rest of the day – Stone Mountain Park. I had no idea what to expect, but while it wasn’t Disney World (nor did it want to be!!) it was quite charming. We took the Summit Skyride up to the top of the largest exposed granite dome in North America right past the carving of Lee, Jackson, and Jefferson Davis. The views from the top were quite spectacular, and the terrain made me think I was walking on the moon. Aside from the fact that it was FREEZING, it was pretty cool! Back at the bottom of the mountain we headed to a lovely Antebellum Plantation area (looking at old houses still is one of my favorite things) and then we ended up at “ A Stone Mountain Christmas”. Lots of Christmas lights, a couple of cute shows, roaming performers, some nice shops, and general Christmas good cheer. Nothing about what Christmas is really about, but nothing offensive either. We wrapped up the evening after the brief fireworks and headed home. A long day, yes….but a good one!

Here are some photos from the day –
The group photo with Charles Stanley -

And then the group with the 3D glasses. Yes, we are a pretty wild group!

And then on to Stone Mountain….
It was a great day for kite flying…as long as you didn’t get too close to the edge!

And yes, it made it all the way up.

And here’s Atlanta in the distance…..

And finally the Christmas Village (with the Confederate Memorial carving in the background).

(Sorry if the picture download was forever! I could have posted more, but tried to show some restraint! )

Today is my 55th birthday. There. It’s out in the open. I now can join AARP, get the Senior Day discount at Kohls, and order from the “Seniors Menu” from any number of restaurants. All THAT good news aside, it was a great day. We Sower Ladies took the day off, and after a yummy Vanilla Latte, we headed to the local outlet mall where I managed to pretty much wrap up my Christmas shopping. Other highlights of the day included an amazing “Happy Birthday” song from my granddaughters, calls and emails from kids and sibs and friends, and another rousing chorus of Happy B-day from my co-workers (along with a GREAT chocolate cake!). All in all, a fine birthday!

And to make the day just a little bit sweeter – here are some new pictures of our little ones. Ah, Christmas (and our visit with them) is only 6 weeks away!
Ellie with her new hair cut….

Hayley playing on the driveway….

And one of the two girls together!

Soooooo cute!

One of the interesting parts about being a Sower is that we often get to do jobs that are eerily familiar to us. The ladies’ main job at this project has been focused on the Forrest Guest House – a turn of the century home that is now being used as a Bed & Breakfast for visiting speakers, parents, whomever. It is a lovely home – and reminds me in so many ways of the home we left behind in Jamison. The tall windows, the cobwebs that just appear in those high corners, hard to reach ceiling fixtures, …… We’ve been combining general “change-over the rooms from guest to guest” to some more thorough fall housecleaning – windows, curtains, and the like. Since there are four of us, I feel like we’re the Merry Maids swooping in to get it done! The hostess that lives there thinks she has died and gone to heaven!
The men are siding a single wide mobile home. It’s going well – and Gary is just happy to be doing something other than HVAC!

But it’s not all work and no play. The weekend was clear and crisp and we took the opportunity pile in one of the college vans and hit the road to see some of the local sights and scenery. We drove through Helen, GA (we had actually been there almost exactly 2 years ago) and climbed up to the top of Brasstown Bald (also a repeat from the last visit). We also stopped at Tallulah Gorge – well, we were too cheap to actually get to the gorge, but we stopped at the exact spot where Karl Wallenda crossed the gorge in 1970. Ah, the sight and sounds of NE Georgia!
Here are a couple of shots from the top of Brasstown Bald -

And from the porch of the Forrest Guest House, you can see Toccoa Falls which are located right on the campus ~

I haven’t actually seen the Falls up close and personal, but I’m sure I’ll get there before the end of the project.

Happy November!