Welcome September!

We said goodbye to August and hello to September this weekend.  The first day of September was a hot one, highs in the upper 90's this afternoon and a good rainstorm tonight.  I'm really looking forward to fall this year!  My and Larry's first time at the fair, our first pumpkins and mums on the porch, our first jack-a-lanterns.  We're also hoping to fit a weekend camping trip in up at High Falls as well as the Country Living Fair with Ami and Brian at Stone Mountain toward the end of October.  

We hit some yard sales early Saturday morning and picked up this adorable little vintage Mersman table for five dollars!!  It was in great shape, just a few little dings and scratches that Larry buffed out when we got it home.  Then he rubbed some Old English on it and shined it right on up!  It looks brand new.  I just love it!!  

Saturday afternoon, we went down to Oglethorpe for a family reunion on my mama's side of the family and had the best time!!  I had cousins I hadn't seen in a long time (except on Facebook) and their spouses and babies I'd never met.  I didn't make a Sunday Cake this weekend because I made a birthday cake for the reunion.  We had several folks with birthdays in August, my mama included.  Hers was Saturday, the day of the reunion, and she's never been able to see so many members of her family ON her birthday so it was a great day.  I made The Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. again and then Larry and I decorated it to kinda look like Banjo's house.  :)

Here's Larry with our baby great-niece, Katie.

 

And here's Katie with Aunt Ninner.  :)  I love my face in this picture!  I'm like, "somebody needs to come get this heah baby!"   

She wasn't hollering the whole time I held her.  Ha!  Sweet baby girl.

I took this picture of Larry standing out on the dock at Whitewater.  I love how it turned out.

And here's the whole Clark gang!  We had a wonderful time and I'm already looking forward to getting together again.

Today was Labor Day and we did just as little labor as possible.  I made us grilled roast beef and gouda sammiches and we just laid around and watched TV.  A great way to spend the first day of September!  I'm wondering if I get my fall decorations down from the attic this week if that will hurry October up. 

Labor Day

 

 

Take rest.  A field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.  ~Ovid

With our national unemployment rate still over 9%, I thought a lot today about what Labor Day must mean for those 14 million people.  If they were able to afford hamburger, I'm sure they grilled out just like we're supposed to.  More than likely, though, they probably spent hours on the internet looking for jobs, applying for jobs that they'll never hear anything from.  I know what it's like to lose a job, to be laid off from a job you've had for many years, a job that you thought you'd retire from one day.  I was fortunate enough to find something else pretty quick and since that bump in my life's journey led me to some pretty awesome people and an opportunity to go back to school, I'm not the least bit upset about it anymore.  Much.  :)  I still think the powers that be at Citigroup are greedy hogs.  Since they opened their $850 million Citi Field in New York the same year they laid me and 50,000 other employees off, it's clear where their priorities were.  Not with their employees, that's for sure.  And like Larry says, who on earth would attend a Mets game, see the Citi Field sign and say, "oh, I think I'll borrow money from them now!"??  Nobody.

So Labor Day for a lot of Americans this year was just another day of trying to survive.  I prayed for them today.  My brother is included in that 14 million figure.  He's been out of work over a year and I just pray that he'll find something.  Anything.

I spent today on the sofa again, trying to get over my cold.  I feel much better now.  Another day of rest was exactly what I needed. 

Rest so you can be bountiful.  I like that. 

Hope everybody had a safe and happy Labor Day!