I love fall - love love love it! The pumpkins, the mums, the long sleeves, candles, pumpkin bread - love it! We've been busy the last few weeks, and the blog has been far from my mind. Here's an update in pictures of what we've been up to and I'll try to do better keeping up.
We went to the Ozarks Celebration Festival held every year at MSU. We've been once before. They have booths set up with crafters, music, steam engines, and other demonstrations and entertainment. I took a class a few years ago called Culture of the Ozarks. Despite the evil teacher, I loved the subject and really like learning about the history of this place we call home, so this festival was right up my alley (what exactly does that phrase mean anyway?). There was a booth set up with some old MSU yearbooks and we were able to find pictures of David's sister and dad. David's sister, Sarah, is on the first row, far left in the picture above.
When September 1st rolls around, I can hardly wait to put out the mums and pumpkins. The sorry-looking summer flowers get retired to a pile in the backyard to be replaced by the wonderful colors of fall.
If you're out at the right time, you might get to see a monarch stop to rest on one of the remaining summer flowers.
One of the other things about fall that I like is the various festivals. We went to Cider Days downtown in the rain, and Farm Fest on a perfect crisp blue day. I fell in love with a baby miniature donkey and two Corgi puppies. Couldn't decide which to bring home, so we had a jug of root beer instead. Can you have miniature donkeys in town? We also went this weekend to First Friday Art Walk, where the entertainment is seldom what's in the galleries.
As long as I can remember, there have been a few men who hold up hell, fire, and damnation signs downtown on the weekends. These men seem to have their own take on the holding of signs. Some of you will recognize the man on the right. :) David was brave enough to ask to take their picture, while I stood on the other side of the street pretending not to know him. I'm glad he did though - it's a classic!
We also hosted Pork-A-Palooza at our house last weekend. What do you get when you combine a yard full of people, 12 slabs of ribs, 28 pounds of pulled pork, 12 pounds of potato salad, 6 quarts of homemade ice cream? A great time! David spent a lot of time getting the food and yard ready, and I spend a lot of time hoping and praying for good weather so that we could all be outside. David has a couple of pictures of the food prep on his camera, so I'll try to share those next time. I have a couple pictures of the yard before anyone arrived, but I didn't have the foresight to charge the camera battery so I have no pictures of the actual event.
Today I'm heading to the Ozark Craft Festival with my friend Lorie. I've never been to this one, and I'm excited! Hope everyone is enjoying fall.
Think someone has a new best friend?
Yesterday Riley met Emma. He was worn out from helping me with cleaning out flower pots, so he didn't play a lot, but he was pretty interested in her. Christina came and played this afternoon and now a tired puppy is sleeping at my feet. If you're worried about the kitties, they're adjusting well. Gracie is in her favorite place (my lap) as I type, and Hen is sleeping in her cuddly new kitty bed. 
At least Amos the Amur Maple is a more cooperative tree. No offensive fruits and a very pretty shade of red for fall.
What better way to spend a cool fall evening than with a campfire and friends? We didn't camp this fall, so we did the next best (and maybe better!) thing with a campfire at Krista's. 
I hauled the contents out onto the dining room table and kitchen counters and got to work. I quickly slapped some paint on the walls so that I'd have to commit. Four coats of off-white paint covered the ceiling and 3 coats of wicker on the shelf walls and 2 coats of oatmeal on the big wall finally covered all the dark blue. 
